Collecting shoes for charity on the North Shore

Sea Cliff resident Ada Duran said she has been donating to Soles4Souls, a charity based in Nashville, Tenn. which collects new and used shoes and distributes them to impoverished areas throughout the world, for the last 10 years. As a Spanish and Italian teacher at Valley Stream North High School in Franklin Square, she said she has used her position to collect shoes from students, faculty and parents through the Students Against Destructive Decisions club to send overseas.

However, with the coronavirus pandemic preventing her from collecting shoes at school, Duran said she wanted to take a more community-based approach. She contacted Wells Café and K. DiResta Collective in Sea Cliff, as well as Grass Roots in Glen Head, and was able to set up donation drop boxes in front of their doors before the drive began on June 15.

Shoe donations at these locations will be accepted until June 30. Duran said so long as shoes are wearable, they can be donated, and all sizes and styles are welcome. She wants to help put shoes on the feet of all different kinds of people, she said, to help them live happier and healthier lives.

Duran said she was inspired to set up the shoe drive by her friend and fellow Soles4Souls volunteer, Rayna Leiter, to whom she is sending her donations. Leiter said she got involved with the charity six years ago, becoming involved to the point where it headquarters helped her set up a storage unit for donated shoes in Manhattan. She said her goal is to reach 25,000 pairs of shoes, and she said local efforts like Duran’s have helped her reach 11,000 so far.

Leiter said the pandemic has made it difficult to accrue as many donations as she would like, as drives in places such as schools and religious organizations have stopped. However, Duran said she has seen a different impact on the North Shore.

With people forced to be home more often than normal, Duran said they have had more time to examine wasteful things they have lying around, including unused shoes. She said the pandemic can be used as a time to remove the unnecessary clutter, both from one’s house as well as their mind.

Duran also said that the mandated focus on staying at home can drag people down mentally, something which she said can be helped by helping others.

“I’ve always learned that when you’re feeling down, what you should do is find someone to help,” she said.

After the drive’s first official day of being open on June 15, Duran said she had already garnered 200 pairs of shoes, twice the amount that she expected to receive over the first 24 hours. This, she said, personifies Sea Cliff’s reputation as being “Tiny but mighty.”

Wendy Rosow, of Sea Cliff, said she has joined Duran because she believes everyone should have shoes on their feet, though many people throughout the world cannot afford them. She said she also wants to raise awareness of how important it is to give simple things which we may take for granted to people who may not have them. This could make a considerable difference in someone’s life.

Duran said her mission is to make people happy by giving as much as possible. She said she knows she will never meet the people who receive the donated shoes, but she is no less excited to provide them.

“It makes your life more purposeful when you can contribute to any type of charity,” Duran said. “How you make people feel is what matters most.”