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Community Corner

Locals Step Up to Sort Shoes for Homeless

Bucks County-based Re-Use Your Shoes bagged thousands of shoes for neighbors in need Tuesday evening

Kyle Ratner, 8, of Langhorne, plucked through a mountainous pile of children’s shoes, pulling out a small black and red Nike and running excitedly to show his mother.

“My friend has the same exact shoe!” he said.

Soon, a new, less fortunate friend about Kyle’s age will be sporting the flashy kicks, thanks to Re-Use Your Shoes, a Bucks County organization started by Kevin Kane, of Warwick, last October.

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Kane and about 50 volunteers sorted and labeled thousands of gently worn shoes Tuesday evening at the in Doylestown. They will be donated to homeless shelters, halfway houses and – in Kane’s words – “whoever needs them.”

Kane was inspired to start Re-Use Your Shoes when he cleaned out his garage and realized that all of his wife’s post-marathon sneakers – which were still in good shape – would be thrown out.  

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When he brought the box of shoes to a homeless shelter run by the Bethesda Project in Philadelphia, he realized that an overwhelming demand for a basic human necessity existed in his own backyard.

Kane soon provided shoes for an unemployed father with seven children and a family whose home burnt to the ground two days before Christmas.

More than 15,000 pairs of shoes began to pour into drop boxes every month during the school year.

“The shoes are put to good use and given back to the community locally,” said returning volunteer Frederick Slapa of Clinton, NJ. “So many of our things are shipped overseas, but there’s definitely a need here.”

Slapa said he brought his children to show them that giving back to the community is important, and that sometimes blessings can be temporary.

“They don’t see homeless people here. They see Abercrombie,” Slapa said. “But the need is everywhere.”

While Emma Slapa, 10, and Samantha Slapa, 13, happily rubber banded shoes together and tossed them into growing piles, 10-year-old Colby Schaefer turned the sort into a game.

“He said it’s like ‘I Spy’ in 3-D,” laughed mother Kellyann Schaefer of Yardley.

Schaefer discovered Re-Use Your Shoes on Twitter, and said that social media has played an integral role in the organization’s growth.

“There’s a unity of people on Twitter,” she said. “It so easily brings people together who wouldn’t normally find each other.”

Scouts, students, families and friends finished sorting and bagging the thousands of shoes Tuesday evening “in record time,” a volunteer said. Over the next few days, the bags will be delivered to a host of shelters in the area.

For Kane, the success of his tenth shoe sort is another small step in the direction of his ultimate goal.

“I would love to have a storefront where people can pick out what they want and just walk out,” Kane said, noting that he has 100,000 pairs of shoes in storage waiting to be worn.

Returning the prized black and red Nikes to the pile, Kyle Ratner pondered what he likes most about helping the needy.

“Seeing the smiles on their faces,” he concluded.

To learn more about Re-Use Your Shoes, visit www.resuseyourshoes.org. Follow the organization on Twitter at twitter.com/reuseyourshoes.

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