The Two Rivers Historical Society and Rodger Street Fishing Village recently launched a shoe drive fundraiser on June 14th and have already collected 50 bags of used shoes out of their goal of collecting 100 bags.
While on the WCUB Breakfast Club, Tootsie Sommers, the director of the Two Rivers Historical Society, explained that Bridget VanGinkel, a member of the Historical Society Board, told them about a used shoe drive.
“she introduced us to funds2orgs.com,” Sommers revealed. “They specifically do these shoe drives for collecting shoes that then go over to developing countries.”
The shoe drive will be going on until around August 18th.
If interested in donating, there are many places available to drop off the shoes, Sommers told host Craig Dillon, “We’re collecting at the Rodger Street Fishing Village, The Washington House Museum, Two Rivers City Hall. Then on Washington Street in Two Rivers there are three locations, American Family, 1st Anderson Real Estate, and the Two Rivers Clothing Company.”
Though this fundraiser was starting to just raise money for the Two River Historical Society it has become much more than that.
Sommers explained that, according to the U.S. Department of Interior, we throw away in the United States at least 300 million pairs of shoes every year.
Those then get placed in landfills where they can take up to 30 to 40 years to decompose.
“Imagine if out of all those shoes how many are still useful for people to wear,” she said. “It’s all for the purpose of helping the people in these developing countries, so really it’s a win, win, win, all across the board.”
For any other information regarding the fundraiser, you can call the Two Rivers Historical Society at 920-793-2490.
