Today’s post is from Soles4Souls’ CEO, Buddy Teaster:
The Soles4Souls blog continually highlights people and shoe distributions all around the world. We have written about Haiti, Tanzania, and Honduras in just the last 60 days! In addition, we also share stories about the work we do right here in the United States, because it’s every bit as important. Last week we worked especially close to home, when we joined dozens of other Nashville, Tennessee organizations at the annual Project Homeless Connect.
Almost our entire Nashville team headed down to the Tennessee State Fairgrounds to help fit hundreds of people for new shoes and boots. While we worked mostly with men, we also interacted with women who needed shoes and socks on that cold, rainy day. Homelessness and poverty are equal opportunity afflictions, it seems. The handful of children we saw were like most other little ones – overjoyed at the prospect of new shoes and ready to dance around to prove it.
Many people left with the new shoes boxed up, wanting to keep them safe from the rain. Most of the individuals we served had strong opinions about color and style, while others struggled to choose between athletic shoes and boots. The running shoes weigh less, make walking long distances easier and work well in the summer, but boots keep feet dry and warm and are necessary for manual labor jobs!
Almost everyone expressed gratitude for their new shoes. Their need didn’t lessen their humanity. Like most of us reading this, they want to look and feel good about what they’re wearing, even if their choices are limited. And, maybe more than most of us, many of them were very pragmatic about what they needed most from their shoes.
Project Homeless Connect was an eye-opening day for me. Many of these folks are just like us, only separated by circumstances. Talking with each person was a reminder that what we have in common is far greater than what keeps us apart.
PS. I’d like to also recognize our accounting team. They weren’t able to join us for this event but, when a truckload of shoes showed up at our warehouse, they leapt up and unloaded 4000 pairs of shoes in 20 minutes. They totally rocked it!