News : Friends of the Shelter Shoe Drive was a huge success

FOTSI volunteers filled trucks twice with shoes donated during the drive.

Virginia Gay Hospital employees were among the leaders of the FOTSI shoe drive.

You may have seen it advertised on our Friends of the Shelter Facebook page, a poster or two around town, or heard about it through the grapevine that Friends of the Shelter wanted your old shoes…and you’re right, we did! For just over ten weeks, we collected, sorted and bagged new and gently worn shoes-thousands of them, in fact! But why?

Wooftrax is an application that can be downloaded on your phone. When you select Friends of the Shelter and turn it on every time you walk, a donation is given to FOTSI. Recently, Wooftrax partnered with Funds2Orgs who allowed each and every shelter or rescue group that was signed up with Wooftrax to participate in their latest fundraiser…a shoe drive! The collected shoes would later be redistributed amongst 26 underdeveloped nations to help individuals start and maintain their own businesses. When we were originally approached in early February, Wooftrax asked us if this was something FOTSI wanted to participate in—it sounded easy enough! All we had to do was solicit new and gently worn shoes and we’d receive a donation for each pound collected. The catch? To waive shipping, FOTSI had to collect a minimum of 2500 pairs of shoes! Although we always knew how much our community supported us, 2500 pairs of shoes was a feat we weren’t sure we could reach. The combination of hope, optimism and not realizing what 2500 pairs really looked like, we decided we were up for the challenge.

Soon after we began our drive, we received our first donation-25 pairs! While we were extremely grateful for the large quantity, we admit it made us a bit nervous realizing we had to receive 100 times that amount. Luckily, Marcy Horst at the Palace Theatre and Stacy Murphy at Grant Wood AEA in Cedar Rapids were kind enough to allow us to put a donation bin in their business. Almost immediately after, we saw the support from our community come pouring in! Virginia Gay Hospital was the first organization to assist us by holding a casual day for a minimum 5 pair shoe donation on March 13. In just a matter of hours, we had received 250 pairs! Shortly after, Mrs. Lorenzen’s class at Shellsburg Elementary challenged the entire school to collect shoes, which motivated Mrs. Martinez Vazquez’s class at Tilford to do the same. The Vinton Community Center graciously sorted through their donations and made multiple donations to us and Larry and Marlene Walthart of Estherville challenged northwest Iowa to help our community. Furthermore, dozens and dozens and dozens of individuals dropped off pair after pair, bag after bag, box after box of shoes! We are proud to say that with YOUR help, we were able to not only reach our goal, but surpass it! In just over ten weeks, FOTSI was able to collect 4035 pairs of shoes! Each pair has been picked up and sent to Funds2Orgs and FOTSI will receive a monetary donation to help the animals in our care. We are extremely grateful for each pair of donated shoes and the amount of support and motivation we received from our community!

We’d like to especially thank these organizations and individuals for going above and beyond:

Larry and Marlene Walthart of Estherville, Iowa: 1000 pairs

Mrs. Lorenzen and her 5th grade class at Shellsburg Elementary: 482 pairs

Virginia Gay Hospital dress down day: 250 pairs

Vinton Community Center: 200 pairs

Mrs. Martinez Vazquez and her 1st grade class at Tilford Elementary: 186 pairs

Marcy Horst and Stacy Murphy for having collection boxes at the Palace Theatre and Grant Wood AEA in Cedar Rapids

We are still overwhelmed with the amount of support we received and can’t wait for our next fundraiser! “Like” our Facebook page to see what we have in store next!

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