We confine old pair of shoes to some corner in our house which will gather dust with time! Many develop the habit of collecting them and find it pretty tough to let them go. And, there are others who have this practice of getting a new pair every six months and discard the old ones. Seldom there’s time or inclination to reflect that the unused ones can be useful to someone else.
If you are having difficulty to part with your once favourite pair of shoe, here is an opportunity where one can be rest assured that the old but still usable pair reaches the right person. As part of the upcoming Hyderabad Marathon on August 24, organisers have launched a shoe donation drive ‘Soles for Souls’, wherein your old but wearable shoes can be handed over to the needy.
In fact, Hyderabad Runners (HR), the running group organising the marathon, has roped in engineering college students as volunteers who are trying to spread word about donating footwear. “Last year, we managed to collect close to 100 pairs ourselves. Public should come forward and donate usable shoes for a noble cause,” says Sumanth, a fourth year mechanical student from MLRIT Engineering College.
Students from some of the colleges who are taking part in this unique initiative include MLR Institutions, St. Marys, Muffakham Jah, Root Business School and ICBM Business School. “Last year, in all, we managed to collect 3,000 pairs and this year we are aiming for over 4,000 pairs. We have contacted several NGOs in Hyderabad for re-distributing the collected shoes,” says Jai Bharathi from HR, who is heading the initiative.
Some of the collection points where one can donate their shoes include MLR Institutions, St. Marys, Muffakham Jah, Root Business School, ICBM Business School, Spencer’s Retail Outlets (5 locations – Musheerabad, Gachibowli, Attapur, K.P.H.B. Colony and Ameerpet) and Reliance Footprints (Somajiguda, Himayathnagar, Kukatpally, Madinaguda, Karkhana, A.S. Rao Nagar). Interested NGOs and public can contact: soles4souls @marathon hyderbad.com or 086867-99770.
