180,000 Shoes for Orphans

Buckner program receives significant donation

Alliance Magazine News Service 09/17/08

At Buckner’s warehouse in Dallas volunteers unload boxes of donated shoes to be sorted.

A tornado that tore through an R.G. Barry Corporation shoe distribution center in San Angelo, Texas, brought the largest Shoes for Orphan Souls donation ever to arrive at Alliance member Buckner Children and Family Service in Dallas.

After the tornado, 180,000 shoes that may have been destined for the dump were rerouted to Buckner’s Shoes for Orphan Souls—a program that provides shoes for children around the world who can’t afford a new pair and may go barefoot otherwise.

Greg Tunney, president and chief executive officer at R.G. Barry Corporation, says his company regularly works with footwear-based charities.

“But the aftermath of the San Angelo tornado was an unusual situation,” he says. “Our insurance called for all products damaged in the tornado to be destroyed to prevent possible resale.”

	Volunteers in San Angelo, Texas, load hundreds of boxes full of shoes onto donated Wal-Mart trucks.

“Damaged” may be a misnomer, however, as the shoes’ integrity was in tact. Luckily the insurance regulations only applied to this country. If the shoes were gifted to a nonprofit sending them out of the country, the donation would be allowed.

“They (the insurance company) agreed to let us donate these shoes and slippers to the Shoes for Orphan Souls organization rather than sending them to the landfill,” Tunney says. “We could not be happier.”

About 30-40 volunteers from PaulAnn Baptist Church in San Angelo sorted and boxed shoes in the lot behind the R.G. Barry warehouse. Wal-Mart donated the use of 15 trucks, 53 feet in length, to transport the shoes to the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid in Dallas.

Volunteers work diligently, loading enough boxes of shoes to fill 15 semi trucks.

“There are a lot of heroes in this story. A lot of people came together to make this donation happen. And a lot of kids will benefit because of it,” says Rachel Garton, director of Shoes for Orphan Souls.

“It has been remarkable to have all of those shoes come to Buckner,” says Ken Hall, president of Buckner International, Buckner Children and Family Services’ parent organization. “The people of San Angelo really came together on behalf of the children who will receive these shoes.”

Despite the fact that the R.G. Barry gift was the largest single domestic donation ever made to Shoes for Orphan Souls, Garton says there is still great need.

“The shoes we received from R.G. Barry Corporation are mostly slippers and house shoes. They will be a huge blessing to children in different parts of the world, especially in the colder countries. But there is still a need for sneakers and shoes that protect the children’s feet.”

Alliance member Buckner Children and Family Services is a division of Buckner International in Dallas. Buckner Children and Family Services provides services to children and families, including humanitarian aid, transitional living and foster care services, domestic and international adoption, and support programs for children living in orphanages around the globe.