By MATT PIKE
The Soles for Christ shoe program is back for another year, held by AFL CIO Community Services in St. Joseph.
The shoe distribution program provides brand new shoes to students in need ahead of the new school year.
Executive Director Nichi Seckinger says right now, the agency is in desperate need of shoes for the distribution, however…
“We have several churches that will do collections, and so we have a bunch that come in at once, but we usually get a trickle of them through most of July and August before the program starts, and it’s been really slow so far,” Seckinger tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And we’re halfway through the month of July, so we are starting to get a little nervous about whether we’re going to get the number of shoes we need, so any shoes we can get we would really appreciate.”
Seckinger says the types of shoes that go the fastest changes every year, so there’s really a need for nearly every size of shoe
“Men’s sizes seven, eight, and nine tend to be pretty commonly chosen, women’s zizes anywhere between seven and 10 are pretty regular for our high school kids, and then grade school it’s just all over the board, we have 10 year olds that wear size 10 men’s shoes, so we never know what it’s going to be as far as our grade school kids and what size they’re going to be needing,” Seckinger explains.
On top of shoes, the agency is also calling for volunteers to help with the shoe distribution event next month.
Seckinger says this event would not be possible without all the people who volunteer to help
“We have four stations, but we run two groups off of each station, so at any one time eight families could be getting shoes, and so we have eight different teams processing those families,” Seckinger says. “So, it’s people who do the intake, people who try on the shoes with them, people who run and go get the shoes, and then of course we have almost like our little shoe store is what we call it but it’s almost like the storage area.”
Seckinger says volunteers are asked to donate at least two hours. Those interested can sign up on AFL-CIO Community Services website.
The shoe distribution will be held August 11th and 12th at the Scottish Rites Temple. Shoes are provided to students from Buchanan, Dekalb, Andrew, Clinton, and Doniphan counties.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.
