Soles Bless Souls

Are we good at spotting needs? Can we see where there are people that are going without? Maybe we are good at spotting it in a commercial with African children or seeing the destruction of a natural disaster on the news, but how good are we at spotting it in our own community? Do we have pre-conceived notions of what a needy person in our community looks like? soles-bless-soles

These are many of the questions that have run through my head recently as a network of people dubbed project northwest Indiana have begun to help those in our community.

As we have mingled and interacted with our community we have realized that in various forms all of us have needs. One of the groups that touched our hearts were the children in our community. It wasn’t that they were “needy” but rather deserving of some help.

Recently a couple of us had a conversation with some people from the Boys and Girls Club of Porter County. We asked them what did they see as a “need” from kids who came to their club. After a few minutes of thinking they replied “shoes.” We see a lot of kids come through our club doors with inadequate shoes. That may mean they are too big, too small, too warn, etc. After discussing this issue with Brandon Miller executive director of the Portage Resale Shop he explained that a lot of the kids shoes that come through the shop are inadequate, especially boys shoes, they are scuffed up, and in general bad condition. The solution wasn’t as easy as sending these kids to the resale shops.

A second idea began taking shape. Cliff Morgan of Wachs Financial firm based out of Chesterton had previously worked for New Balance while a college student in Chicago. He offered to see if New Balance would drastically cut the price of shoes for a project that benefited these children in Porter County. They have agreed to give us shoes at little over cost so we can give shoes to 500 children in Porter County.

Our goal is at the start of the 2011school year to provide 500 pairs of shoes. But we need help doing this, it is going to cost approximately $15 per pair of shoes. We need your help in making this project a success. We have begun raising money and are looking for both businesses and individuals to help pay for these shoes. portage-resale-shop-logo

To help you can make a check out to the Portage Resale Shop or paypal the donation to nwishoeproject@gmail.com this is tax deductible or for more info call Ben Polhemus 574-249-9036. Thank you for your support in continuing making Porter County a great community.