Get rid of those shoes and donate
The second annual Feet First Shoe Drive has been taking place on the USU campus for the past two weeks. Shoes are being donated to Aggies for Africa, AFA, a student-led club on campus, and being shipped to Cameroon, Africa, in the coming weeks.
AFA has teamed up with the Salt Lake City-based organization Green Eyes in Africa to get the shoes to Cameroon. Jo Olsen, director of Aggies for Africa as well as a junior double majoring in public relations and speech communication, says his goal was to triple last year’s donations of 500 pairs of shoes. With the donations of students and the community, the goal was more than met with 1,754 pairs of shoes being sent to Cameroon with Green Eyes in Africa.
Green Eyes in Africa brought one van to Logan last year to collect the shoes and this year Olsen said he hopes that they will have to bring two or three.
“We’re on campus,” Olsen said, “we just don’t always have the means to get things to Africa.”
Olsen has originally planned on the shoe driving lasting only a week, but he said he had so many students wanting to go to their parents homes and bring back shoes that they decided to extend the shoe drive.
“There’s a lot of support, not only on campus, but also in the community,” he said. “We were really impressed with everybody that was willing to help with it.”
Conrad Mickelsen, senior majoring in political science, is a member of Aggies for Africa and donated two pairs of shoes to the shoe drive. He said this fundraiser was important because “Africa goes unnoticed by the world, it’s good to raise awareness.”
AFA has teamed up with Hastings, Caffe Ibis, Global Village and Hillcrest Elementary School for this year’s shoe drive, leaving boxes at various locations so community members could donate shoes without coming to campus.
Last Wednesday AFA encouraged club members, as well as students willing to help, to go barefoot for the day to raise awareness of the shoe drive.
Late Thursday night Olsen reported the current count as 1,754 pairs of shoes. He also stated that donations would be taken until Friday, October 17.
Drop-off boxes are located around the TSC on the USU campus, at Hillcrest Elementary School, located at 960 N. 1400 East in Logan, Hastings Books Music and Video located at 50 E. 400 North in Logan, Caffe Ibis, located at 52 Federal Avenue in Logan, and Global Village, located at 146 N. 100 East in Logan. Shoes can also be dropped off in the Val R. Christensen Service Center.
AFA was founded in 2006 and became part of the Val R. Christensen Service Center this summer. Olsen said that the club’s next big project will be a concert for education. For more information on Aggies for Africa can be found at the Val R. Christensen Service Center.
–kandice.crompton@aggiemail.usu.edu