Usually, people walk out of New Balance with more shoes. Last week, a troop of Girl Scouts from Orange and Anaheim Hills brought almost 400 pairs in for donation.
The eight members of Troop 1697 had collected about 500 pairs of used shoes from their family, friends and classmates at Nohl Canyon Elementary School, where they are all in fourth grade.
About 100 pairs were considered to be in too poor condition for donation, and the 392 remaining pairs were hauled in boxes to New Balance on Thursday.
The athletic shoe and apparel store in the West Wing was chosen because it’s a dropoff point for Soles4Soles, said project coordinator Kim Haman, who stored the shoes in her garage.
New Balance will ship the boxes of shoes to Soles4Souls’ warehouse in Las Vegas, where they will be cleaned, said store manager Joe Lourenco. Then the nonprofit will send the footwear to people in need around the world.
Troop member Katie Yau explained the motivation behind their project.
“If people don’t have shoes to wear anymore, they’ll have shoes to wear so they don’t step on a nail,” she said.
The 9- and 10-year-old Girl Scouts had to fight some temptation though.
“Some girls wanted to keep the shoes because they were so cute and they fit,” said troop member Emily Condon.
The troop is composed of Mariam Azizi, Emily Condon, Sarah Downey, Gianna Grob, Samantha Haman, Ruchi Shah, Allyson Yamasaki, Katie Yau and adult leaders Theresa Downey and Lorraine Grob.
Cost Plus World Market at the Village at Orange donated the boxes they used to transport the donations.
Before Thursday, New Balance had collected about 300 pairs of shoes from individual donors for Soles4Souls, which takes any style of shoes, not just athletic types.
New Balance will take $5 off a new pair of shoes for anyone who brings in a pair for donation from May 29-31, Lourenco said.
(P.S. Want to see the Clinton-era shoes I donated to New Balance last December? If yes, click here.)
More on the West Wing from the South Coast Plaza blog:
For more on South Coast Plaza, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.
