How to Hold a Shoe Drive for Laces of Love
Be sure you have buy-in / approval from the Boss !!
- Choose a date (a day / a week / a month) that your colleagues will bring in ONE (or more !) pair of NEW sneakers for a child in need and publicize the Shoe Drive throughout your company.
- Let everyone know: We need sneakers: child size 3 – adult size 11 or 12 (the bigger the better – kids have big feet these days!).
- Contact The Shoe Lady, Jeanne, at Laces of Love (jnealon@lacesoflove.org / 239-591-1172) for brochures, photos, thank you’s from kids and parents or other materials that will help you spread the word and demonstrate the NEED.
- If possible, schedule one of the Laces Board members to come out and speak to your company (Jeanne can schedule this). Hearing real life “Laces” stories will definitely increase your donations.
- Create a large drop off box or location for the shoes that are donated. We do NOT need or want the shoe boxes (boxes take up too much room), but do leave the paper stuffing in the shoes (some kids have never seen that), and ask folk to gently tie the shoes together with the shoelaces.
- All shoes will be tagged with a Laces of Love tag (so the parents know where the new shoes came from). Your employees can tag their shoes and write a short note (“Run Fast!” “Jump High!”) on the back of the tag if they wish. We will provide the tags and the “how to” for successful tagging … or we will tag the shoes later.
- Arrange with Jeanne or your board speaker/liaison for your company’s shoe donations to be picked up. And … receive a big THANK YOU on behalf of the kids who will now have good shoes that fit and that they are proud to wear!
Many people from other parts of the country become interested in providing shoes to needy kids in their own community. We have set up a page just for sharing our insights gained from operating Laces of Love.