Buckner urgently needs help to process shoes_111703

Posted: 11/14/03

Buckner urgently needs help to process shoes

Officials with Buckner Orphan Care International have issued an urgent plea for volunteers to sort and prepare thousands of donated shoes for shipment to children around the world.

Boxes and boxes of donated shoes are stacked high and deep in Buckner's Dallas warehouse. Volunteers of all ages are needed to help sort and repack the shoes for shipment to children around the world.

The plea comes amid a record outpouring of shoes donated to Shoes for Orphan Souls from all 50 states. Nearly 220,000 pairs of new shoes and thousands of pairs of socks have flooded into Buckner's warehouses in Dallas, according to Jeff Jones, director of program development.

While Buckner has managed to ship shoes to places in the world where cold weather is beginning to set in, Jones said he is desperate to complete the job of sorting thousands of shoes that have arrived since July.

“We're in desperate need for volunteers to process these shoes,” he said. “We're now set up in our new warehouse, and we probably still have about 100,000 pairs of shoes needing to be processed.”

Sorting shoes is a “perfect volunteer opportunity for families, friends, Sunday School classes, church groups, civic organizations, high school groups, just about anyone,” he said.

Anyone interested in helping may contact Carla Robertson at (469) 877-4504 or Andrew Knight at (214) 914-1676.