By Lauren Hollon Sturdy
Buckner International

TYLER, Texas—Despite his age, Zack Lawson sounds as professional and polished as if he’s been in the “real world” for years. He’s been dealing with school administrations, tax forms and presentations a lot lately, which could have something to do with the 17-year-old’s mature demeanor.

Lawson recently wrapped up a 10-school shoe drive, a project that took eight months from inception to completion.  The drive fulfilled one of his requirements for the International Baccalaureate Programme, a college preparatory program for high school students that stresses global understanding and community service. Shoes for Orphan Souls appealed to Lawson as the focus for his service project because it benefits children and has a global reach.

When he looked into ways others had conducted shoe drives, he realized a citywide drive or one involving local radio stations was probably out of reach. But his dad worked in a local elementary school and Lawson knew they were working on rallying around service through Rachel’s Challenge, focusing on teaching the kids kindness and compassion through service.

He thought Shoes for Orphan Souls would go over well in schools because the focus is children, and it meshed perfectly with the themes of kindness, compassion and generosity that schools were already emphasizing.

“It would give the schools a tangible rallying point for this idea of Rachel’s Challenge,” he said.

He presented the project to the elementary school counselors at one of their monthly meetings. They all loved it.

Cutting through the red tape and paperwork to get the project approved by the district wasn’t so easy, but Lawson persevered, getting the required signatures, making phone calls and recruiting the help of his International Baccalaureate supervisor.

In the end, the shoe drive was approved and 10 elementary schools out of 17 in the district participated. They collected 500 pairs of shoes, 1,026 pairs of socks and 218 pairs of shoelaces. He got some monetary donations, too.

“I had no idea how to file the monetary donations, buy shoes and do tax returns,” he said. “My mom helped me do all that, and she helped me maximize the money to purchase more shoes.”

On January 14, they loaded down a pickup truck with 31 boxes filled with shoes, socks and laces, and Lawson and his parents drove it from Tyler to the Shoes for Orphan Souls warehouse in Dallas.

“It was nice to bring closure to something I initially doubted would ever get off the ground,” he said. “January 14th was a date I’d been looking forward to ever since I packed the last shoe and counted the last sock. I’ll miss all the wonderful teachers and students I’d met in the course of promoting the drive and collecting the donations. Without them, these past 8 months wouldn’t have been the success that it was.”

After he graduates this spring, Lawson hopes to attend college at the University of Texas at Austin, where he plans to study biomedical engineering.

By Lauren Hollon Sturdy
Buckner International

DALLAS – Outside the Dallas Convention Center, thousands of people huddled together, wrapped in blankets, waiting for 8:30 a.m. when the doors would open for the 8th Annual Christmas Gift 2011.

“We were told that some people even came the night before and camped out to make sure they had a good spot in line,” said Brittany Sumrall, volunteer coordinator for Shoes for Orphan Souls®, the largest humanitarian aid project of Buckner International. “This event fills such an important need in our community.”

Christmas Gift, an event run by Operation Care International, served more than 8,000 homeless people, veterans and low-income families last weekend with gifts, new clothes, warm meals, haircuts and new shoes. Buckner has participated in the event since it began in 2004 and donated more than 4,500 pairs of new shoes this year.

“The shoes provided are an incredible help to this ministry,” said Susie Jennings, founder of Operation Care. “They are the lifeline in the foot washing area.”

Jennings founded Operation Care in 1993 to provide for the physical needs of impoverished children and the homeless. Every December the organization partners with charities, churches, corporate and small business sponsors, individual sponsors and donors to hold the “nation’s largest Christmas party for the homeless.”

“Partnership is vital to this ministry,” Jennings said. “Each of our partners functions as the hands and feet of Jesus.”

Volunteer help is also essential. It took more than 3,000 volunteers to pull off Christmas Gift this year. At the foot washing station, kneeling before rows of chairs with paper towels, wet wipes and sanitizer, volunteers washed guests’ feet and fitted them with new socks and shoes.

“I was nervous about signing up for foot washing, but I felt it was where I should spend my time,” one volunteer said. “I’m so glad I went through with it. It’s been emotional and life changing.”

Buckner collects shoes year-round through its worldwide Shoes for Orphan Souls project. Since 1999, Shoes for Orphan Souls has collected and distributed more than 2.2 million pairs of new shoes to 74 countries around the world. About 20 percent of shoes collected by Buckner help vulnerable children and families in the U.S.

“Susie told me that every guest that needed a pair of shoes received a pair of shoes,” said Mike Julian, logistics manager for the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid. “That is a blessing!”

To learn more about the events and ministries of Operation Care International, visit their website at http://www.opcare.org/. For information about Shoes for Orphan Souls, visit http://shoesfororphansouls.org/.

Editor’s Note: This testimony is from an excerpt of the “Weekly Word From Your Pastor” e-mail sent to members of First Baptist Church of Sunnyvale, Texas. Their church held a shoe drive on Oct. 16.

What a blessed day we had last Sunday. Everyone looked comfortable in your “Game Day” jerseys, and there was such excitement about not only being at church, but making the world a better place by bringing shoes to be given away. I was so moved when I saw our church family bring over 800 pair of shoes and lay them on the altar. I want to share part of a letter I received Sunday.

Bro. Charlie,

I just want to let you know how proud I am of our church. As I watched the people line up to take, not just one pair, but three or four and even stacks full of boxes of shoes to the front of the church, I couldn’t fight back the tears from rolling down my face.

I was raised at Buckner Orphans Home from the age of 6 months up to my early teens. I remember when I was in the home, we got only one pair of shoes in the fall. They were for school and church, or if you were “lucky” enough to have parents come visit you on the first Sunday of the month, you could wear your shoes. Any other time you were to go barefoot.

Now that I am an adult, every time I hear of a child from a broken home or a family down on their luck, the first thing I notice if I have a chance to meet them is the shape of the children’s shoes. I am this person that still remembers how it feels to get a new pair of shoes and remembers how it feels to get to put them on and try and see if they are your size!

God bless you and our church family and may God bless our church and those who brought shoes. May God bless all of those tender hearts.

I think that says it better than anyone could. Praise God for our church family. Thank you for giving to the Lord!

Joyfully,
Bro. Charlie

Dr. Charles L. Wilson has been the senior pastor of Sunnyvale First Baptist Church in Sunnyvale, Texas,  since 1990.

COPPELL, Texas—One teacher at the Coppell Dance Centre doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to protecting kids’ feet.

Keith Green, director of hip-hop at the studio, found a way to put his passion and talents to a creative use to collect shoes and money for Shoes for Orphan Souls and Buckner ministries last month. He organized a hip-hop workshop fundraiser called “Good 4 the Sole,” and challenged dancers to give new shoes to attend the event at a discounted rate.

A choreographer and dancer with 14 years of experience, Green got into the industry after a torn hamstring ended his semi-pro football career. He was working as a personal trainer when one of his clients invited him to a hip-hop class. Not seeing himself as the dancing type, he sat and watched the class for two weeks. His third week there, he got up and did the routine perfectly, never having tried it before.

“It was weird to me,” Green said. “And very weird to the teacher. Dance moved me in a different way, and I felt it was where I needed to be. I sold my half of the personal training business and started working at the dance studio.”

Despite his successful career in choreography, Green felt unfulfilled. He had dreamed of doing big tours and movies, but things hadn’t panned out that way.

“As a sat and reflected on my life and career and why I didn’t make it as far as others have, I started thinking it wasn’t God’s plan for me,” he said. “I realized he was calling me to use my resources and contacts to give back and help other people.”

Choosing Buckner as the charity for his fundraiser was a “no-brainer,” Green said. He used to volunteer at the Buckner Children’s Home in Dallas in the late 90s with friends, giving free haircuts to the boys that lived there.

“It was such a great experience,” he said. “For my journey and my heart, it just stuck with me. Ever since we stopped, I’ve wanted to do something like it again.”

He asked local choreographers to donate their time to help put on the workshop. Green taught at the event, along with Robert Anthony, Jenny Durbin-Smith, Sean Jackson and Roger Lee. Peter Vattakavanich, a Glacèau employee and Dallas break-dancer, donated cases of VitaminWater and SmartWater to help dancers stay hydrated during the intense five-hour workshop.

Green gave the 48 pairs of shoes and all monetary proceeds from the event to Buckner. He said he plans to continue to hold dance workshops benefiting Buckner.

“Shoes for Orphan Souls ties in perfectly with what we do as hip-hop dancers, because our shoes are so important to what we do,” he said.

To find out more about the next workshop fundraiser, visit the Coppell Dance Centre website. Or, sign up to host your own shoe drive here.

By Lauren Hollon Sturdy

MIDLAND — More than 2,600 pairs of shoes were collected for Shoes for Orphan Souls at Rock the Desert this year, bringing the total for the last three years to around 16,000 pairs. The concert with a cause also brought in 349 pairs of new socks and $728.

The First Baptist Church Ralls youth group brought in  half of that total with 1,305 pairs of shoes they collected in the months leading up to the concert. They raised awareness of their drive by doing a “No Shoes Sunday” at their church, holding a fundraiser and promoting it on Facebook, and working with local businesses to arrange discounts for shoes purchased for the drive.

“We start early collecting shoes,” said Bruce Harris, FBC Ralls youth pastor. “That’s been our push for our youth group. It’s what we do to give back to the community.”

“It allows the kids firsthand to contribute back to a cause,” he said. “You know the scripture James 2:14-18 basically says that faith without works is dead. It goes on to say that when you see somebody hungry or lacking clothing and you do nothing, what good is that? We’re trying to teach our kids that it’s important to do something.”

Thousands of young people attended the concert, which featured such big-name Christian artists as Switchfoot, David Crowder Band and Skillet. People managed to stay cool and enjoy three days of in the triple-digit heat and dust.

“It was very enjoyable, even if it was hot and dirty,” said Eric Kline, inventory specialist for the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid. “The youth had a great time.”

The Wal-Mart Corporation played a big part in the success of the Rock the Desert shoe drive by donating the use of one of its trucks, as well as the cost of transportation and fuel, to deliver the new shoes collected at Rock the Desert to the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid in Dallas. These shoes were enough to finalize a shipment of aid to Romania last month. Wal-Mart is also providing transportation for more than 8,000 pairs of shoes collected from the shoe drive radio station JOY FM hosted in Sarasota, Fla.

Taking a Risk

Amy Duncan-Stier, 25, spent her summer as a volunteer with Buckner in Guatemala after she graduated from Baylor University in 2008.

“We did a shoe trip while I was there,” she said. “And when I saw the need and saw what shoes meant to the kids, it just touched my heart. It’s just amazing how those children would line up for shoes. They have nothing.

“Since I got back from Guatemala, I’ve always wanted to do a shoe drive,” Duncan-Stier added.

After she and her now-husband, Scott Stier, got engaged, they talked about trading in a traditional gift registry for a request for shoes.

Photo courtesy of Allison Notgrass, Focal Point Photographics

She worried about what people would think of having a shoe drive instead of traditional wedding gifts. She also realized her wedding was a one-time event and that they would use the gifts they received for the rest of their married lives.

“In the end, my husband Scott and I wanted to start our lives out service-oriented, because that’s what marriage is,” she said. “It’s about coming together and serving others and Christ for the rest of your life.”

Duncan-Stier said she and her husband were blessed beyond what they could have imagined, receiving all the things they needed to set up their home in several bridal showers held in her honor.

Photo courtesy of Allison Notgrass, Focal Point Photographics

The shoe drive wedding reception was also a bigger blessing and a bigger hit with the guests than Duncan and her husband expected. Everyone loved having the opportunity to participate in ministry with their wedding gift.

“Little old ladies would come up to me in the weeks before the wedding and say, ‘I’ve got my shoes for the wedding!’ but it was shoes to give to the orphans, not to wear with their dress,” she said, laughing.

They collected more than 150 pairs of shoes at their reception, and several guests made donations to Shoes for Orphan Souls in the couple’s honor.

‘Tis Better to Give

Rebecca Morton Pyle started planning her first wedding at 56.

“I had a great first half of my life,” she said. “It was never a life-or-death, ‘I have to get married’ situation. But I wanted a different second half of my life, so I intentionally sought out God’s choice.”

She found her husband, Ron Pyle, through the eHarmony website. She committed to spend six months using the website, and when she first set up her profile, Ron had just decided to take a break from using the site. They nearly missed finding each other completely; he didn’t log on again until her six months were almost up. The Lubbock couple dated for more than a year before they married in June.

“I went to Oaxaca last November on my first Shoes for Orphan Souls mission trip, and it just captured my heart,” she said.  “When we were planning the wedding, we decided we didn’t need more stuff. We wanted to encourage generosity to a charity and we chose Buckner, so we decided to ask our guests to participate in a Shoes for Orphan Souls wedding shoe drive.”

They kept their wedding small and married in Lewisville, Texas, near Ron’s family. About 60 guests attended and 123 pairs of shoes were collected.

Scott Collins, vice president of communications for Buckner and a longtime friend of the bride, attended the wedding and spoke about the mission of Shoes for Orphan Souls at the reception.

“It was a traditional wedding in every way, except the reception,” Collins said. “It was a thrill to walk into the reception area at the wedding and see tables piled high with shoes. That Rebecca and Ron would give up wedding gifts in favor of gifts for orphan children says so much about them and their love for children.”

He picked up a zebra-striped pair of shoes from the collection table and told Pyle he would deliver them to a child in Kenya in July.

“When he sent me a picture of the girl who got that pair of shoes, I got goose bumps,” Pyle said. “It was an immediate gratification to see that photo and to be reminded that these are real people the shoes go to.”

“Because of this, other people have heard about Shoes for Orphan Souls from our guests telling the story to other people,” she said. “I think that’s so cool, because it’s not about me and Ron – it’s about the kids who need shoes and how we can help.”

To learn more about hosting a shoe drive, visit our website.

Shoes for Orphan Souls and the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid have dedicated friends and partners in the Missouri-based Convoy of Hope and Missouri Rotary District 6040. So when a destructive tornado ripped through Joplin in May, Buckner wanted to help.

“Although we’re not a disaster relief organization, we have a great partnership with Convoy of Hope and have supported each other’s ministries in various ways,” said Matt Asato, director of international humanitarian aid for Buckner. “We knew they were going to respond and we wanted to support our partner in their relief efforts however we could, as well as get much-needed aid to the people of Joplin.”

Buckner began collecting hygiene kits and other donations to meet the immediate needs of victims of the disaster.

On June 3, Buckner sent a shipment of disaster relief aid to the Convoy of Hope warehouse in Springfield, Mo., for distribution in Joplin.  The shipment, valued at over $67,000, contained 2,884 pairs of new shoes, new socks, baby items, hygiene kits, linens and clean-up items such as rakes, gloves, trash cans, trash bags and shovels.

Hygiene kits included such items as hand wipes, shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste and other toiletries.

The Missouri Rotary District 6040 came through just in time with a fresh supply of new shoes. They completed their tenth annual shoe drive this spring and recently donated 16,350 pairs of shoes and 1,372 pairs of socks, some of which were a part of the shipment of aid to Joplin.

“For 10 years, Missouri Rotarians have diligently and proudly collected new shoes for orphans around the world,” said Larry Lunsford, the Rotary’s Buckner liaison. “Now we feel the tremendous pride of knowing that some of those shoes, collected in Missouri, have been sent to our fellow Missourians in the Joplin area during their time of desperate need.  It seems only appropriate.”

Buckner plans to send out its second and final shipment of aid to Joplin this week. The Center for Humanitarian Aid has ended its collection of hygiene kits, but is still accepting donations for disaster relief.

For questions regarding humanitarian aid collection, contact the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid at 214-328-7463. Click here to donate to Buckner International’s disaster response fund. In the designation line, click “other,” then write, “Disaster Response.”

DUNCANVILLE, Texas —A recent student-led project at Smith Elementary School taught 15 fourth and fifth grade students that they can impact the lives of children around the world.

At the end of the school year,  the Smith Elementary School News Team, a group that records, edits and airs a daily news show for their school, held a shoe drive and a Walk-a-Thon to collect shoes and raise money for Shoes for Orphan Souls.

They used their talents to plan and promote their event. Students hung posters around the halls, did their own remake of a Shoes for Orphan Souls video to advertise during their daily news show and teamed up with students at Byrd Middle School to collect more shoes.

“We chose Shoes for Orphan Souls because it is geared towards children,” said Krystle Gomez, the news team’s sponsor. “I wanted the students to make a real connection. This was truly a student-led project that the students were invested in and will never forget.”

On May 10, the group delivered $1,262 and 128 new pairs of shoes to the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid. A Wal-Mart employee and parent to a second grader at the school added another 697 pairs of shoes to the final count through a donation from the Wal-Mart Superstore in Plano.

Students spent their morning at the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid sorting and processing shoes, writing notes to go in each pair and learning more about what shoes mean to vulnerable people around the world.

“I learned that there are people out there that walk places barefoot, including kids our age,” said student Valaya Nokeo.

Of the 477 shoe drives that have been held for Shoes for Orphan Souls this year, 31 of them were led by school-aged children.

“It’s a great project for student groups, because collecting shoes is something tangible,” said Brittany Sumrall, volunteer coordinator for Shoes for Orphan Souls. “The students from Smith Elementary got to see results with shoes coming into their school, and when they came to the Center for Humanitarian Aid and saw pictures of kids in other countries who have received shoes, the project really came full circle for them.”

To learn more about hosting a shoe drive, click here. To sign up, click here.

 

   The North Texas community is invited to participate by collecting shoes and dropping them off at designated drop-off locations July 1 – 30, 2011.

DALLAS – The Dallas Patriots, one of the top select baseball clubs in the nation, Premier Baseball Academy and KCBI Radio are looking to hit a home run for needy children this summer by collecting 25,001 pairs of new shoes for orphans and vulnerable children worldwide through Shoes for Orphan Souls, a ministry of Buckner International.

The North Texas community is invited to participate by collecting shoes and dropping them off at designated drop-off locations July 1 – 30, 2011.

Dallas Patriots President Logan Stout chose to work with Buckner after seeing pictures of children without any shoes and learning how a simple pair of new shoes can affect a child’s health, education and overall well-being.

“I asked them, ‘What’s the biggest donation of shoes to date?’ and they said, ’25,000.’ So that’s why we decided to do 25k + 1,” he said. “In today’s world, there is so much pressure for kids to complete, to win … I think it’s equally important to teach these kids the importance of servant leadership and giving back.”

KCBI Radio is collecting shoes as part of their Summer Tour in July. In 1995, KCBI General Manager Ron Harris started the project, then-called Shoes for Russian Souls, before it was taken over by Buckner in 1999 and the name changed to reflect the project’s global reach.

Buckner International, The Dallas Patriots and KCBI Radio are inviting the North Texas community to participate by collecting new shoes and dropping them off at one of many local businesses or churches from July 1 – 30.

DFW-area drop-off locations include:

• Payless ShoeSource (select locations)
• PrimaCare
• LifeWay Christian Stores
• Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas
• First Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas
• Cornerstone Baptist Church in Dallas
• Blue Heaven Yogurt Company in Mansfield
• KCBI Radio Summer Tour Spots

For a complete listing of drop-off locations, please visit http://www.shoesfororphansouls.org/dropoff-patriots.shtml.

Since 1999, Shoes for Orphan Souls has collected and distributed more than 2.2 million pairs of new shoes to needy children in North Texas and 72 countries worldwide. Shoes for Orphan Souls is the largest humanitarian aid project of Buckner International, a Dallas-based global Christian ministry dedicated to making life better for orphans, vulnerable children and families since 1879. To learn more, visit www.buckner.org.

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In partnership with the other 54 Rotary Clubs in Missouri Rotary District 6040, a total of 16,350 pairs of shoes, 1,372 pairs of socks and over $11,000 were collected for international orphans in the Dominican Republic.  This humanitarian aid was collected during the 14-stop Shoes Caravan, starting in Kansas City on April 28 and ending in Kirksville on April 30.

Missouri Rotary remains the largest single contributing organization to the Shoes for Orphan Souls campaign to date, collecting a total of 207,000 pairs of shoes and $78,000 in cash since the first shoe drive in 2001.

United Parcel Service partnered with Rotary District 6040 to provide transportation for the collection, from the final caravan stop in Kirksville, Missouri to the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid in Dallas, Texas.

“UPS encourages its employees to volunteer and give back to the community in which we live,” said Elizabeth George, UPS district human resources manager. “Since we are a global company, I felt this was a project we could use to not only help our community, but also the children of many nations.”

Rachel Garton, director of Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls, said that Buckner is “extremely grateful” for the shoe donation this year, as well as for all of the donations they have received from Rotary District 6040 in the past.

“Rotary’s consistency over 10 years has allowed us to send more shoes to children around the world, and ultimately, opened the door for us to share love and care with more children who otherwise wouldn’t receive it,” she said.

“No other organization has had the willpower and vision to involve so many people to make a difference as Rotary has.”

Since 1999, Shoes for Orphan Souls has delivered more than 2.0 million pairs of shoes and socks to orphan children in 69 countries. Shoes for Orphan Souls is a ministry of Buckner International, a Dallas-based global ministry dedicated to the restoration and healing of orphans and at-risk children, families and senior adults.

Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service and help build goodwill and peace throughout the world. There are approximately 1.2 million Rotarians who are members of more than 33,000 Rotary clubs in nearly 170 countries.

Story from Rotary District 6040 website.