05/30/2026
Wow! Crazy to see that it has been 13 years since we held that first shoe drive here at RCC and we have been collecting shoes for Soles4Souls ever since. 😍
MAY is OUR 13 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!
This month marks the 13 year anniversary since we started collecting shoes for Soles4Souls! Thank you to everyone we have partnered with over the last 13 years, we so greatly appreciate you & your support!
2013: We started with a shoe drive at Ross Christian Church with 2,163 pairs. We took a small group of us down to the S4S global headquarters outside of Nashville, TN and they gave us a tour of the facility and the offices - and we fell in love with the mission and impact S4S has on so many! We came home with a new passion and excitement to help those who need help and rallied groups we are involved with to help us!
2013-2020: We brought S4S as a service project for 6 years to our Girls Camp week at Woodland Lakes Christian Camp and took them down to the world headquarters twice for a mission trip.
2016: Sydni & Kelsi (along with their friend Olivia) did a DECA project on S4S and got their Harrison DECA chapter involved which collected over 5,000 pairs that year.
- This year we earned a FREE shoe distribution for Southwest Local School District of 100 pairs of shoes which we split between the 4 elementary schools. Principals sent us shoe sizes needed for students they would be giving shoes to.
2017: We partnered with JTM Food Group who served as a storage facility for allllllll the shoes we collected during 2017.
2019: S4S got us our own local storage unit to collect & store shoes in!
Summer 2019: We had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala with S4S on a shoe distribution to orphanages & communities in need.
2019: Alexi and her friend, Livvy, did S4S for their project this year and collected thousands of shoes with 3 separate shoes drives.
2020-2021: The great pandemic closet clean outs! We collected tens of thousands of shoes during the pandemic years as people were in full clean-out and organizing their houses mode. We still met people at storage throughout the pandemic and allowed no-contact porch drop at our house too. Even in a pandemic, the shoes kept coming!
- Dream come true! Sydni got hired at Soles4Souls to work with churches and schools & serve on the travel team (taking impact teams/missions to Honduras & Guatemala)
- We earned a second FREE shoe distribution for Southwest Local Schools of 100 pairs of shoes based on our collections which we split between the elementary schools again.
2022: We went on two travel trips with Soles4Souls to Honduras in March and Guatemala in July.
- Added a year-round shoe collection box at Ross Christian Church.
2023: We went to Honduras in July and took a team of people with us from church and friends of the girls, Sydni was our travel coordinator from S4S!
- We also started partnering with Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub and they bring us a carload of shoes every couple week through their awesome volunteer, Judy!
2024:
- We added Give Like A Mother to our charity donation partnership and we pick up shoes from them once a month over in Eastgate (thru our awesome volunteer, Ashley!)
- We added year-round shoe collection boxes to local businesses and churches: Shoe Sensation, Shelter Insurance, Miami Whitewater Community Church, Java Jackets, F45 Fitness & Larosas in Loveland.
- We partnered with Harrison Junior School & their Wildcats Give Back service day and packed up 2,140 pairs of shoes from our porch donations.
2025:
- We added the University of Cincinnati volunteer portal that allowed us to get student volunteers to do shoe drive pick up and drop offs for us.
- We sponsored another drive at the Wicked Night Out Charity Ball event
To date, over the last 13 years, we have collected over 230,000 pairs of shoes and recognize that we could not have done this alone - we are thankful to all of you who continue to be a support to this amazing organization and to my family.
We know, 13 years is a long time to collect shoes, but we love this organization and the impact they make every day and we are blessed to be a part of what they are doing.
As always, we are still collecting shoes! We want YOUR shoes! Any size, any condition, with or without a mate. Do a closet cleaning day, get the tubs of kids’ shoes in the basement or garage and consider donating today.
Why not host a shoe drive at your school, work, organization, etc? We have partnered with Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, American Heritage Girls, 4H, schools, DECA, churches, sororities, colleges, sports teams, non-profits, small groups, individuals, etc. Anyone can do a shoe drive - big or small!
Need service hours?? Collect shoes and S4S will sign off on hours for you! You earn 1 service hour for every 25 pairs of shoes collect, easiest way to get service hours EVER!!!
Happy 13 year anniversary to us!
