StFX students gathering “Shoes for Souls”

Do you have old shoes gathering dust in your closet? Then StFX’s Service Learning Society wants to hear from you.

The student society has thrown its support behind Shoes for Souls, a campaign created by a Halifax youth and supported by several Halifax hotels, and will conduct its own shoe drive on the StFX campus on Monday, Jan. 25 and Tuesday, Jan. 26 to raise awareness of the stigmatism and destitution that people are facing here at home and in Africa.

In light of the recent situation in Haiti, a portion of the donated shoes will be sent to support relief efforts there.

"We want people to know that we can do something, even if it is as simple as donating your old shoes that you were going to throw out or just let collect dust in the closet." says Kyle Warkentin, the 19-year-old who came up with the idea for the campaign.

Warkentin was recently chosen for the Order of Canada Mentorship program for 25 youth to be mentored by 25 Order of Canada recipients. 

While he was in Zambia, he noticed that many people did not wear shoes; they walked everywhere bare-footed. "This does not seem like a big deal, but wait till you hear this, there is no public garbage collection agency there, so everything that is tossed into the streets…and many other bacteria carrying agents are everywhere. Now if you are walking bare-footed and you happen to have a cut or you get cut, and you have the AIDS/HIV virus, you get infection, and most likely develop a sickness that will kill you. AIDS/HIV does not generally specifically kill, it is usually the complications from other diseases that kill, due to the fact that the immune system weakens.”

Service Learning Society co-president Kelsey Lynch says their society is responsible for community based volunteering and “we thought this would be a great opportunity to give back to the devastated nation of Haiti. As you will find, not all of the shoes will be going to Haiti, however, a portion will be sent for relief efforts.”

The drop-off takes place on Monday, Jan. 25 and Tuesday, Jan. 26 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on the 3rd floor of Bloomfield Centre. A bake sale will also be happening at the same time. All proceeds will go towards the "2 Dollars a Head for Haiti" campaign that a group of StFX students is now spearheading on campus.