PSA: Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Academy’s Shoe Drive Needs More Shoes!

A Board member of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Academy’s Home School Association reached out to us asking for help with the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Academy’s Shoe Drive – they are rather short of their goal. Here’s her note:

There is so much negativity in the world today that Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Academy wanted to stop for a while and do something good. Something that we feel in our hearts and “souls” will help others.

We started our drive on April 3rd and have collected approximately 300 pairs of shoes. A great start, but our goal is 7,500 pairs. We know that we can do it! Our neighborhood is strong and multicultural. What better way to come together, as a community, and provide a helping hand without costing a cent.

Have you ever thought about what happens to the shoes thrown away in the garbage? Annually, in the United States alone, over 600 million shoes end up in landfills. With our shoe drive, we have a way to re-purpose shoes so it does not happen. It gives our neighborhood a way to dispose of shoes in a socially responsible way.

Shoes are made of dozens of parts. These parts are stitched and glued together. As they break-down, some parts release invisible toxins into the air. One of the reasons towns with open landfills have a higher incidence of respiratory diseases is because of decomposing shoes.

Want to know one of the best things that happen with the shoes we collect after our shoe drive?

All donated shoes will be redistributed to micro-enterprise partners and used in developing nations (like Haiti, Ethiopia and Uganda) for impoverish people to start their own business. Your shoes will help families (mothers and fathers) provide for their children. Some families that have gone from earning as little as $2 a day, which is extreme poverty, to over $60 a day. That’s a living wage.

Please feel free to drop off you gently used/new shoes in our collection boxes to:
Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Academy
 1514 72nd St, Brooklyn, NY 11228 718-331-2070
Or Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church
7201 15th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11228