Tracy Lions’ Soles 4 Souls program concludes another successful year
i MAGINE GETTING UP IN THE MORNING AND PREPARING FOR YOUR DAY, THEN HEADING OUTSIDE WITH NO SHOES ON YOUR FEET. Such is the life of far too many people — in other counties and in the U.S. as well. That’s what makes the Tracy Lions’ Soles 4 Souls program so vital, and this year’s recently completed shoe drive has been one of the most successful ones in its 20-year existence.
“There’s people that don’t have good shoes to wear,” said Lynn Buyck, who is spearheading this year’s shoe drive, somewhat taking over for her husband, Joe. “It makes you feel good that you’re doing your part.”
Joe remembers a story he heard about kids in a foreign country who weren’t allowed to enter a school building without shoes. Many families, he said, only had one pair of shoes, “so one kid would wear them on Monday, one kid would wear them on Tuesday. Our thought is, if we can get all the kids to have shoes, get to school and get educated, that will improve their status in the world and improve their community and their life. One pair of shoes — it’s going to make a difference.”
This year, there have been so many shoes donated, the drop-off site stayed open for an extra week.
“Just look at all the shoes that have been dropped off at the VMC, it’s just fantastic,” Lynn said. “They’re good, hardly-used shoes.”
Originally, when the local program was in its infancy, there were drop-off sites around Tracy, and the shoes were brought out to Buyck’s farm site, where they were stored and then boxed.
“We had large boxes, put them in a trailer and they were hauled off to Iowa,” Joe said. “Recently, Lynn has taken it over, and she has taken care of all that.”
Lynn said the whole process is a bit more complicated than it was years ago. Back in the day, after the shoes were put in apple boxes and shipped out by UPS with labels provided by a company called Zappos. But Zappos no longer provides that service.
“This year, I’ll be hauling them up to Sauk Center,” Lynn said. “They have a semi trailer up there, and I can unload them — the trailer just sits there all the time.
The bags that Lynn will drive to Sauk Center each contain 15 pairs of shoes of all kinds, shapes and sizes. But there is some important work that has to be done before the shoes leave town.
The donated shoes are first brought to ECCO and the developmentally-challenged clients who spend time there during the week. There, the shoes are sorted, zip-tied together and placed in large garbage bags. Joe praised the people at ECCO and said the community is fortunate to have the entity in town.
“They have been fundamental in our shoe project,” Joe said.
Single shoes are also accepted because some of the recipients might have just one leg.
“With the number of landmines that have been placed in some of these foreign countries that are at war, there are a great deal of one-footed people. So we want those shoes.”
Lynn figures she’ll have to make two, or even three trips to Sauk Center since so many shoes have been donated by the local community.
