Two weeks of shoes donations at Maroochydore Library generated 1852 pairs of shoes. On day one 42 pairs, growing to 304 pairs on day 14.
Some people's shoes should not have made it past their own wheelie bins.
You get no points for generosity by donating rubbish.
At the other extreme we had:
- folk who bought new sox to donate with the shoes
- someone who bought a new hiking backpack to hold their donated shoes
- the lady who sewed beautiful shoe bags with hand-made decorations attached
- the many shoes which had been carefully wrapped and labeled, some of which are shown in the accompanying photo.
All Sunshine Coast Libraries were recently drop-off points for shoe donations in the Marching into Africa campaign. I was asked to be the designated shoe handler at Maroochydore Library. (Is that because the boss knew I'd look good in pink plastic gloves?)
As I didn't hear the campaign being promoted on our local ABC radio station, I'm not sure how much emphasis was placed on the finer details. The printed blurb which we displayed on our noticeboard said that shoes should be:
- in reasonable condition
- practical
- delivered to any Sunshine Coast Library with laces tied together, in a bag with the size number clearly written on the side
Anyway, disregarding the finer details,(as most donors did), the public felt that it was a good cause, and the shoes began to trickle in.........
