"You have two hands. One to help yourself, the second to help others."
Anonymous
**QUICK NOTE: If you get excited about what's going on here, contact me and I can help you get involved. It's so easy, and it's gonna be fun!
So I'm going to tell you why I'm walking around barefoot today, but first I want to see if any of you have ever felt like this before: The older I get, the more aware I become of the world around me, and the more I realize how many people there are, who are truly in need of the simplest things that I take for granted everyday. For a long time, seeing so many people in need had me feeling uncomfortable. Here's why: One part of me had a huge desire to help ALL of these people, while another part of me felt so inadequate and almost worthless because I didn't have the slightest idea of how to even begin helping a single person, let alone the millions that need it. I remember thinking, What can I even do? There's nothing special about me. I don't have a huge influence in my community or on social media to gather a big group of people together and change hundreds of lives. I was beginning to feel like I could never help people the way that I wanted to.
So that's what I'm doing now! I wanted to get involved with a humanitarian/service project that I was passionate about. If you know me at all, you know that I have an unnatural love for shoes, so I decided I would organize a shoe drive to collect shoes that could then be given to people around the world who don't have any to wear. I joined forces with the organization SOLES4SOULS, and immediately fell in love with their mission! I decided to organize the shoe drive through them because I love that they focus not only on providing shoes and clothing to individuals in developing countries, but also to those here in our own country as well. Check out this video to see what we'll be helping them accomplish!
Notice how I said "what WE will be helping them accomplish"? That's because I want to invite any of you who have ever felt like I did; like you want to help in some way but aren't exactly sure how to get started, to get involved with us in this shoe drive.
I remember back when I was collecting shoes, I used to tell people I had a "shoe problem" because of the amount of shoes I had. I've since realized the real shoe problem is that so many individuals have to live their lives everyday without even one pair of shoes. THIS IS WHY IM WALKING AROUND BAREFOOT TODAY! Today, October 16th, 2015, I and thousands of other people around the world are going #barefoot4them to raise awareness for people who really do have a shoe problem. Now I totally understand that me walking around barefoot doesn't necessarily help someone in need of shoes, but it does make other people interested in getting involved. And now we're going to get to work collecting the shoes for these people in need.
So here are the details:
We just recently started collecting the shoes, and will be collecting until December 31st, 2015. What I've learned is that people will run a drive through their school or with their organization that lasts 2-3 weeks, so if you or your kids want to organize a drive like that, this gives you time to organize it, and run the drive. I would love to work with anyone who wants to help us collect shoes. To get it started I'm partnering with my future brother-in-law, Austin Mitchell, who will be running a drive through BYU-I. I'm also working with the Central American Relief Club out of Chandler High School in Arizona. Even though we're all collecting shoes in different states, we're all working on this same shoe drive, and we would love to help anyone interested to head-up their own part of this shoe drive within their own community or organization. And don't think that just because someone is already collecting in your area, it means you can't collect there too. There are SO many churches, neighborhoods, schools, or organizations that you can collect your shoes through, and every pair makes a world of difference for that one person who receives them.
Collecting these shoes won't dramitically change the world, but it will cast a stone that will create many ripples, I can promise you that.
If you or someone you know is interested in heading-up a part of this drive with us, please contact me! We have everything you need to make the drive as smooth as possible.
Curtis Harding
801.922.0106
