Project a 'shoe-in' to make a difference
By Ruthanne Johnson
Broomfield Enterprise, Thursday, May 8, 2008
While many were sleeping, mowing the yard, or heading to the mountains for a reprieve from the city last weekend, congregation members of Lutheran Church of Hope in Broomfield were listening to stories of how their simple gift of shoes brought hope to needy communities abroad.
They also were handing over one last collection of shoes before a short summer hiatus on their project to help Boulder-based nonprofit organization One World Running, a charity that since 1986 has been collecting, cleaning and
shipping shoes and other goods to underprivileged people living in Third World countries.
Michael Sandrock, sports journalist, author and founder of One World Running, on Sunday described the process and outcome of the four-
boxed them up and then shipped them to families unable to afford them in developing countries.”
It was a similar story that initially brought Sandrock’s project to the church, said Jan Peticolas, director of parish education at Church of Hope.
“I was in Breckenridge last year and read an article in the town’s newspaper about a group of chiropractors who were collecting shoes for a Boulder organization that sent the shoes to underdeveloped countries,” she said. “I knew then I wanted to organize something similar.”
For Peticolas and other church members, the project fit well into their docket of community work, which annually includes the creation of Santa sacks and food distribution for needy families during the holidays, feeding the homeless and school supply drives.
“This is a very worthwhile project and a way the church can be active in a global consciousness and bring awareness to this issue,” said Ken Thurow, interim pastor for the church.
For Sandrock, his eureka moment came after he had finished running a marathon in Cameroon.
“Runners of the world have so much in common,” he said. “And I remember seeing these runners in plastic sandals with broken straps. Their feet were bloody, but they were hardcore runners. One of the runner’s passed me during the race, and I followed his bloody
trail to the finish line.”
Sandrock said he and several other elite runners at the race decided right then to donate their shoes to the runners. “That’s where the shoe project began, and it has grown ever since. Since then, we’ve delivered shoes all over Africa and Central America, also to Tibet and many other countries,” he said.
In addition to giving running and other shoes to the world’s needy, One World Running also provides sporting equipment and clothing,
medicine and school supplies. Shoes too worn for reuse are ground up and recycled into running tracks and playgrounds, Sandrock said.
Another service the organization provides is the assistance of nurses, who give health and nutrition advice to communities for several days before handing out shoes and other supplies. On the sixth day, the shoes are handed out,and on the seventh, a 5-kilometer race is sometimes held to encourage the community to stay physically active and fit. One of the organization’s recent successes was a series of youth races in El Salvador, in which hundreds of participants ran after distribution of their new shoes. El Salvador also happened to be a
recipient of shoes donated by Church of Hope.
“It was wonderful to find out that some of our donations made it to El Salvador and were actually handed out by their first lady,” said Petricolas, explaining that although her church is taking a summer break from the project, it will begin again in the fall.
For Sandrock and congregation members at Church of Hope, the project has been a win/win — Sandrock’s organization has received shoes and other supplies for the needy, and many in Church of Hope’s congregation have cleared their closets of shoes they might not have remembered they even had.
