Sunday, February 27, 2011

Soles 4 Souls

So what are those cardboard boxes everybody has been seeing throughout school?  They have these huge signs that say Soles 4 Souls and have tons of old shoes in them. But do people even know what that is? 


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SAAC, also known as a student-athlete advisory committee, according to NCAA is a committee made up of student-athletes assembled to provide insight on the student-athlete experience. SAAC also offers input on the rules, regulations and polices that affect student-athletes' lives on NCAA member institution campuses.  The SAAC at the University of Portland has gotten together with Soles 4 Souls in order to make a difference.

So what is Soles 4 Souls?
According to their website, Soles4Souls is a Nashville-based charity that collects shoes from the warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. The charity distributes these shoes to people in need, regardless of race, religion, class, or any other criteria. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away nearly 12 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes (currently donating one pair every 7 seconds.) The shoes have been distributed to people in over 125 countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States.


Soles 4 Souls


Today, Sunday February 27th our SAAC got together at Merlo Field and watched person after person drag a box of shoes in. This is where the counting began...we all counted, tied laces together, rubber banned shoes together, and took the occasional pizza break. After we were all done we had a rough estimate of just how many pairs of shoes we had.  An incredible number of over 2,000 shoes! This is an amazing number!  I feel as though everybody needs to know much our school helped out.  Each donation given by the students here at UP counts, whether you donated one pair or five pairs, it all matters.  This is something we should all be proud of because we actually made a difference. 

I think that what Soles 4 Souls is doing is a great thing, and I think that it is definitely something more people should try and get involved in !
Posted by K@ssi at Sunday, February 27, 2011
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4 comments:

  1. YangFebruary 27, 2011 at 8:02 PM

    Thanks for the info! I was so curious about the boxes because I pass by one every time I walk through the Chiles Center for dance class. For me, the MOST interesting note in here was how much we actually put in to this donation! How cool that you actually got the numbers!

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 27, 2011 at 8:54 PM

    WOW! That's great!! It's nice to know that our Athletes were a part of something like that. I never really thought about shoes or how vital they can really be in a person's life. Those shoes are going to people who need them and I just used them for accessories. This puts a different perspective on things.

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  3. UnknownFebruary 28, 2011 at 12:17 AM

    :) so happy!! That's the first rough estimate that I have heard. Amazing.

    PS: it was raining/hailing when we were driving all over your hometown today. Can you make sure that doesn't happen when we are back there for another tournament in 2 weeks?

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  4. AnonymousFebruary 28, 2011 at 6:09 AM

    Sounds like a fabulous organization! Great for Portland to get involved!

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