A little less than two months ago, I traveled to Haiti with
Soles4Souls distributing shoes and giving hope to the broken. Little did I know how much the trip would actually break ME! When I returned home I knew I had to do something more so I signed up to host a shoe drive at my college, being a fashion school, I knew people had lots of shoes they no longer wore. I entered into the "Flippin' Good Deeds Challenge, a collaboration with Soles4Souls and Flip Flop Wines to see who could raise the most shoes. For the past month, I saw the drop box fill up little by little, and it felt like Christmas each time I would empty that box into the trunk of my car so there was room for more shoes to be given.
Virginia Marti College of Art and Design was able to raise 163 pairs of shoes!!!
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| Getting ready to send the shoes to Nashville. |
My sister Rachel who lives in Connecticut was inspired by my shoe drive and wanted to help out! So she made a drop box location at her work, and collected
70 more pairs of shoes!!! Thank you Rachel, love you!
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| Rachel's sign at her shoe drive. |
The shoe drive ended November 10th, with a total of 233 pairs between both locations!!
When I look back through pictures of my trip, the ones that break my heart the most are the pictures at the orphanage. There we did not distribute shoes, but just played with the children and showed them love. I can't explain the way my heart feels when I think of how those little babies clung to me and just wanted to be held. They didn't have a mom or a dad to hold them or to give them hugs and kisses with they got a little boo-boo. They live there everyday without hope, and all it takes is an organization like Soles4Souls to go down there and spread hope to the hopeless in Haiti!
I met an amazing woman of God on my trip, the team coordinator and leader of Travel4Souls, Emily Prokopik, who I know will become a lifelong friend of mine! My experience with Souls4Soles was a life changing experience and I hope to travel with them again someday!!
Blogger #019 FlippinGoodDeedsChallenge
