Soles 4 Souls is a charity organization that Seniors Hailee Hoover, Jake Wilms, Michael Horn, and Rachel Campolito have partnered with to collect new or gently worn shoes of all sizes to be shipped to third world countries.

The four of them were selected for this project by their youth group leader at St. Roberts, Kelsey Quinlyn, who also teaches at Lakeview’s k-8 building.

Wilms said, “Mrs. Quinlan helped us decide on our fundraiser for the year and she brought up Soles 4 Souls.”

Through the collection, the four plan to work together to collect 300 pairs of shoes which they will send to Rob Meeker, a Cortland representative for Soles 4 Souls, then they will be sent to a warehouse in Alabama before being shipped to Haiti.

This is not the first time Meeker has partnered with Lakeview to support Soles for Souls. In the 2016-2017 school year, The Bulldog Bulletin reported on Meeker’s daughter Madison collected over 25,000 pairs of shoes and personally delivered them to the workers in Haiti and met some of the people who would benefit through the partnership.

Once the shoes arrive in Haiti, they become an important part of helping the local people.

Hoover said, “Mostly women sign up for the micro-entrepreneurship who will then be given the shoes to sell in order to provide for their families.”

Wilms added, “Selling the shoes will also help boost the circulation of money and improve the local economy.”

Two of the four students have worked on other collections in the past.

Campolito said, “In the past, I have participated in canned food drives like the ones organized through the Beta Clubs.”

Hoover also reported working food drives, but neither Wilms nor Horn report any experience in this type of collection.

But learning new skills is exactly why they are doing this activity.

Wilms said, “We are all working equally and dividing each task equally.”

The students are hoping to raise the number of donations by encouraging some friendly competition among the different grade levels of Lakeview Schools.

Hoover said, “Along with the goals that we have set for our community, we have also created a competition between the elementary, middle, and high school. The school with the highest number of shoes collected will receive a prize.”

And that prize is a unique trophy the group designed.

Wilms added, “We have the golden shoe trophy which will be given to the school that collects the most shoes.”

Collection boxes are located in the office lobby of each building. Please tie or rubber band your shoe donations before placing them in the box. The collection will be from November 1st to December 17th.