Boy Scout Collects Over 1,400 Shoes for Shoe Drive

If there’s one thing a global pandemic hasn’t stopped, it’s our amazing volunteers hosting shoe drives around the country. Even with having to minimize social interactions, our volunteers have stepped up in collecting shoes– whether that means handing out flyers and collection bags or utilizing drop-off boxes. One of those volunteers, 14-year-old Adam Benson of Beaverton, Oregon, not only met his shoe collection goal this year but nearly tripled it. 

Adam first got the idea to do a shoe drive after hearing about a trip his 8th-grade band teacher took to Central America. 

“When he was leaving that country, he gave a child a pair of shoes he wasn’t using. The child told my band teacher, ‘Thank you, this is the first pair of shoes I have ever owned,’” Adam recalled. “I started searching the internet for organizations that could help with a shoe drive. I found Soles4Souls almost instantly.”

Being a Boy Scout, Adam knew a shoe drive would be the perfect project to get his Eagle rank. His initial plans to go door-to-door around his neighborhood quickly changed for COVID safety measures, encouraging him to get creative in his outreach. By utilizing Soles4Souls’ partnership with Zappos, marketing on social media platforms, and handing out flyers and collection bags, Adam was able to rally his troop into collecting 1,407 pairs of shoes, surpassing his initial goal of 500. 

“I think the main reason the project did so well was because of the great community we have. Everyone seemed to want to contribute,” he said. “Soles4Souls has helped me really empathize with the people who walk around every day barefoot. I think a lot of us don’t really know how hard that can be.”

Because of Adam’s hard work, the 1,407 pairs of shoes will be able to generate up to 2 years of income to provide food, shelter, and education for a family in need in countries like Haiti and Honduras.

To learn more about starting a shoe drive like Adam, visit our website here.