Day 95 - Soles 4 Some Souls

As I prepare for the Dallas Color Run tomorrow I started thinking about my shoes and which shoes I should wear, should the color packets wreak havoc on them.  Shoes are the one clothing item that so many of us have an overflowing abundance of and our only problem is which pair best matches our outfit.  But there are so many around the world that go completely without.  Unicef estimates that out of 2.2 billion children in the world, 1 billion live in poverty, with 300 million of these kids estimated to lack a pair of adequate shoes. That is just heart-breaking.

Soles4Souls is a Nashville-based charity that has a simple concept: procure shoes and get them to those in need.  Having started after the 2004 tsunami of southeast Asia, their mission is to collect new shoes to give relief to the victims of abject suffering, and used shoes to support micro-business efforts to eradicate poverty.

Soles4Souls has delivered over 19 million pairs of new and used shoes to those in need.  For every $1 donated to Soles4Souls, they can provide one additional pair of shoes to someone in need.  So for today's random act of kindness I made a contribution to purchase several pairs of shoes.

As I'm running tomorrow and looking at all those colorful running shoes I'll be sure to think about Soles4Souls and all those children that are presently going without.

Day 95 - Soles 4 Souls