A recent article in The Times Herald, a local newspaper, inspired Ross Medical Education Center Port Huron graduate of the Medical Assistant program, Desiree Botello, to get involved. Desiree proposed a volunteer opportunity to the Port Huron campus that seems to just keep on giving. The article Desiree read described a local gift shop, A Little Something, owned by Lucie DeLine which was sponsoring a fundraiser for the Blue Water Clubhouse.
The Blue Water Clubhouse is a nonprofit organization that helps people with mental health issues transition to independent living. Blue Water Clubhouse is funded through St. Clair County Community Mental Health and helps about sixty people per week with independent living: everything from finding employment to charting local bus routes to learning to prepare daily meals. The funds raised by DeLine will help provide extras such as day trips and social recreation for club members.
Weary of the usual fundraisers, DeLine discovered Soles4Souls, a nonprofit organization founded in the wake of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Their mission is to provide second response relief to disaster victims in the short term through shoes and clothes. They also provide shoes to people in third-world countries who are at risk of disease, which in some instances leads to death, simply by being forced to go barefoot in unsanitary conditions. Since 2006, Soles4Souls has collected and distributed 26 million pairs of shoes to those in need in 127 countries around the world and all 50 states in the United States.
In the long term, Soles 4 Souls has established a micro-enterprise model in countries such as Haiti and Honduras and others throughout Central America and Africa. They teach the residents to utilize and repurpose the raw materials in gently used shoes and clothing so they can operate self-sustaining small businesses providing them with financial security. As an additional benefit, all of the donated clothing and shoes is prevented from winding up in landfills, turning trash into opportunity.
DeLine will be receiving $.40 per pound for the shoes she collects, all of which will go to support the Blue Water Clubhouse. She hopes to raise $1,000.00. Students and staff at the Ross Medical Education campus in Port Huron dug deep into their closets and collected 95 pairs of gently worn shoes to donate to the cause. The shoes were delivered by Desiree Botello to A Little Something gift shop. The campus is excitedly waiting to hear the final shoe count and how much was raised for the Blue Water Clubhouse!
If you are interested in joining the cause both domestically and internationally, visit the Soles4Souls Facebook page or their website at Soles4Souls.org.