shoes! shoes! more shoes!

It’s hard to imagine never having had a pair of
shoes. I mean, here in the South, we’re known for going barefoot a lot, but for
the most part, we have the shoes to wear. I’ve heard tales of people who have
in excess of 100 pairs in their closets. At last count I have 20 or so — most
of which never go on my feet! But there are people all around the world who walk barefoot all the time, not because they like it, but because they have no shoes.

I’ve recently learned about Soles4Souls, a
Nashville-based organization that facilitates the donations of both new and
used shoes, which are used to aid the hurting worldwide.

Since it’s inception,
Soles4Souls has distributed more than 3.5 million pairs (or one pair every 23
seconds) to people in 61 countries, including Honduras, Romania, Thailand and
the Sudan.

They’re launching a special fundraiser this
year — 50,000 Pairs of Shoes in 50 Days Challenge. It’s amazing! For only $5,
you can give TWO pairs of shoes. Imagine that! TWO PAIRS — providing two
people with shoes and all it cost you is $5!! How much better can it get?

Here’s the deal. You go to the website
and you can donate as many TWO pairs as you want! If you donated $10 or
more, you get a great Soles4Souls gift. In addition, if you blog or use
Facebook or Twitter or any other online media, then get to work
spreading the word! Just go on the website,
click on the button for Spread the Word, where you can get banners or
widgets for your blog, Facebook or MySpace! You can also send an evite
to all your friends, letting them know about this amazing challenge!

Soles4Souls founder and CEO Wayne Elsey says

"A strong grass-roots effort, combined with
an effective web-based social marketing platform, will allow Soles4Souls to
form online community in a creative manner while being effective with raising
funds and helping those in need.

This is a huge challenge to meet a huge
need. We want to virally attack the
issues of poverty and make it simple for the end user to play a role in
it."

Donating is
easy and takes just a click and a couple of minutes. It requires no shipping, no wrapping and no
trips to the post office. The monetary donation is small with $5.00 buying two
pairs of new shoes. Anyone can click and
give, and all donations are tax-deductible.

After 50,000
pairs have been donated, one person (with a guest of their choosing) will be
selected at random to deliver the shoes they purchased to someone in need on
one of Soles4Souls’ trips to Mexico!

"Can
you
imagine what it would be like to personally give someone their very
first pair
of shoes?! We look forward to connecting the tangibility of handing
someone a
pair of shoes with the virtual world of the Internet," Elsey said.
Personally, I think that would be AWESOME and I’m thinking I need to
get my passport! (How’s that for faith?)

Social networking has become a very powerful
communications tool; however, no one knows when life will hit hard or where a
disaster will strike. One day you have
everything you need; the next you may only have your life. A pair of shoes can help people begin the
rebuilding process. Shoes not only bring
hope, but in millions of cases they can save lives. It is estimated that Americans have 1.5
billion pairs of unworn shoes lying in their closets while over 300 million
children around the world have never owned a pair of shoes. This is an opportunity to "Step Up"
and to help Soles4Souls with their mission of "Changing the World, One
Pair at a Time" with "One Click at A Time."

So,
get with it! Get moving! How many $5 bills have you got that can
provide shoes for those who have never had them? And don’t be surprised
if I go over this again… I mean, we’ve only got 50 days!

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