DALLAS— Buckner International is teaming up with Texas Baptists to encourage Baptist churches across the state to collect new shoes now through July 14 and bring them to the first-ever Texas Baptist Family Gathering, which will take place July 14 – 17 in San Antonio, Texas. Shoes collected will benefit vulnerable children in the Rio Grande Valley and around the world.

“As a long-time Texas Baptist, it is inspiring to see our Baptist family join together in the spirit of the Lord to serve orphans and vulnerable children,” said Albert Reyes, president and CEO of Buckner International. “This year’s gathering has the potential to bring about redemptive transformation in the lives of thousands of lives around the world. New shoes are just the beginning. We are blessed and humbled to be a part of this movement.”

Last year, Buckner partnered with the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas to collect more than 3,000 pairs of shoes and 994 pairs of socks. This year’s collection is expected to benefit even more children through the generous donation of new shoes from churches affiliated with the Hispanic Convention, the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the National African American Fellowship.

Shoes collected will be sorted and packed at the Family Gathering for distribution to vulnerable children. For additional information on how your church can be a part of the shoe drive, click here. 

Churches interested in volunteering will have the opportunity to personally place shoes onto children’s feet during Buckner’s Mission Day in the Valley on Saturday, Aug. 17. For more information on how you can sign up for the volunteer day, click here. 

According to The State of the World’s Children as reported by UNICEF, there are 148 million orphans around the world.  Orphanages do not receive enough funding to support the children in their care.  One of the greatest and most immediate needs is a pair of shoes.  Many of the children receive one pair of shoes to last the entire year, and some don’t have shoes at all. Shoes also protect feet from many diseases and help impoverished children go to school, since most schools around the world consider shoes to be an essential item.

Due to customs regulations and the desire for children to receive a new pair of shoes, Buckner only accepts new shoes and socks. The greatest need is for leather or canvas athletic shoes sizes Youth 1 – Adult 7.

For more information, please contact the Shoes for Orphan Souls team at 1-866-774-SHOE or e-mail shoes@buckner.org. For more information about Shoes for Orphan Souls®, please visit www.buckner.org/shoes.

About Buckner International:
For more than 134 years, Buckner International has been transforming lives through hands-on ministry, serving the most vulnerable from the beginning to the end of life. Buckner is one of the oldest and most unique faith-based social service organizations of its kind, serving more than 450,000 people each year in the United States and 18 countries worldwide.

About Shoes for Orphan Souls®:
Shoes for Orphan Souls®, the largest humanitarian aid project of Buckner International, provides new shoes and socks to orphans and vulnerable children in the United States and throughout the world. From conducting shoe drives to humanitarian aid trips, Shoes for Orphan Souls® offers hands-on opportunities to individuals, groups and organizations wanting to transform lives. Since 1999, more than 2.5 million pairs of new shoes and socks have been distributed to children in 74 countries.

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Media Contact:
Jenny Pope/Buckner International
214-758-8068 (office)
214-632-2340 (cell)
jpope@buckner.org

Free concert to raise awareness for Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls®
Sunday, June 9 at Levitt Pavilion in Arlington, Texas

DALLAS – Buckner International, a Dallas-based global Christian ministry, presents ‘Barefoot in the Park’ featuring Jeff Johnson Band and Kyle Sherman at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 9 at Levitt Pavilion in downtown Arlington, Texas. 

‘Barefoot in the Park’ is a free family-friendly concert and part of the Levitt Pavilion Summer Concert Series. Concert goers are encouraged to enjoy the show barefoot to raise awareness for Shoes for Orphan Souls, the largest humanitarian aid project of Buckner. Since 1999, Shoes for Orphan Souls has provided more than 2.5 million pairs of new shoes to children in 74 countries around the world.

Complimentary glow-in-the-dark wristbands will be provided to the first 1,000 attendees at the event. Concert goers are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets, picnics and coolers with non-alcoholic beverages to the event. No glass containers allowed. Concessions will also be made available at the pavilion for purchase.

Founders Plaza is located at 100 W. Abram St. at the corner of Abram and Center streets, directly across from City Hall. For a parking map and more details, please visit www.bucknerevents.com. 

For more than 133 years, Buckner International has been transforming lives through hands-on ministry, serving the most vulnerable from the beginning to end of life. Buckner is one of the oldest and most unique faith-based social service organizations of its kind, serving more than 450,000 people each year in the United States and 18 countries worldwide.

Media Contact:
Lauri Ann Hanson
Office: 214.758.8171
Cell: 214.931.9216
laneill@buckner.org

From April 1 to May 10, individuals can drop off new shoes at various drop off locations. KLBT 88.1 FM will be collecting shoes the final day of the drive from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at their studio, located at 1872 Calder Ave. in Beaumont. PODS Beaumont will provide storage at the radio station for all the new shoes collected throughout the drive– so let’s pack the POD! For a complete list of drop-off locations, please visit www.buckner.org/shoes.

“We are continually blown away by the generosity of our community and churches in response to local needs,” said Laura May, Southeast Texas Buckner Children and Family Services administrator. “The goal of this drive is to unite all of Southeast Texas for the purpose of meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of vulnerable children locally and around the world through the gift of shoes.”

A portion of the shoes collected from the drive will go to meeting the needs of local children throughout Southeast Texas. Shoes will be distributed to children who have just entered care as well as throughout Buckner’s transitional service programs to children who are either homeless or have aged out of foster care.

Due to customs regulations and the desire for children to receive a new pair of shoes, Buckner only accepts new shoes and socks. The greatest need is for leather or canvas athletic shoes sizes Youth 4 – Adult 9.

For more information, please contact Molly Cash at 1-866-744-SHOE or e-mail mcash@buckner.org. For more information about Shoes for Orphan Souls, please visit www.buckner.org/shoes. 

About Buckner in Southeast Texas:
Buckner has been serving vulnerable children and families in Southeast Texas since 1970 through foster group care at Buckner Children’s Village, community foster care and adoption, Emergency Shelter services and community – based transition programs for children aging out of care. Buckner Children and Family Services is part of Buckner International, a global Christian ministry serving more than 450,000 people each year in the United States and 18 countries around the world. To learn more, please visit www.buckner.org.

About Shoes for Orphan Souls®:
Shoes for Orphan Souls®, the largest humanitarian aid project of Buckner International, provides new shoes and socks to orphans and vulnerable children in the United States and throughout the world. From conducting shoe drives to humanitarian aid trips, Shoes for Orphan Souls® offers hands-on opportunities to individuals, groups and organizations wanting to transform lives. Since 1999, more than 2.3 million pairs of new shoes and socks have been distributed to children in 74 countries.

Bailey Johnson had counted and sorted every single pair of shoes for her mission trip – several times, in fact, because she kept losing count of the piles spread across her family’s lawn. So when she arrived with a mission team in Honduras and came across three left-footed flip-flops in three different colors, all the same size, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Oh, great,” she thought in frustration, “That’s three girls who won’t get shoes!”

“But God, of course, had plans,” said Holly Johnson, Bailey’s mother.

Bailey and Holly are big “collectors.” They’ve gotten into the habit of stocking up whenever they see small toys, supplies or gifts on sale, because they love to send shoeboxes of gifts to children around the world at Christmas and give presents to children when they go on mission trips.

Two years ago they saw flip-flops on clearance and bought 40 pairs. They decorated the sandals and took them on a 2011 mission trip with S.O.S. (Seekers of Souls) Ministries – the same organization they’d seen the Duggar family of “19 Kids and Counting” travel with on television.

The next year they began collecting flip-flops again, gathering 200 pairs this time. Holly began researching ways to bless even more people with shoes and remembered hearing about Shoes for Orphan Souls, Buckner International’s largest humanitarian aid project.

Holly contacted Buckner staff to learn more about how to work together and placed a request for additional shoes to take overseas on the next S.O.S. Ministries mission trip. After getting approval for the request, the Johnson family visited the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid last October to pick up more than 1,100 pairs of shoes destined for Central America.

Back home in South Carolina, shoes littered their lawn as they sorted, counted and recounted the shoes and prayed for each child who would receive a pair. Neighbors came out to watch the spectacle and ask what was going on – “It was a great witnessing tool,” Holly said.

Bailey, her twin brother and their dad traveled to Honduras last December with S.O.S. Ministries, shoes in tow. During a Vacation Bible School program, Bailey was dismayed to discover the three single flip-flops that slipped past her family in their shoe counting.

Later that day, however, a young girl came to the mission team with her friend to get new shoes. Her right leg had been run over by a truck and amputated several years earlier. The three “orphaned” left flip-flops that had slipped past the Johnson family were exactly the perfect size.

“It was a reminder that God doesn’t need us,” Bailey said. “He’s got this under control; we just need to follow Him.”

Shoes for Orphan Souls is the largest humanitarian aid project of Buckner International, a global Christian ministry dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable children, families and elders. Since 1999, we have collected more than 2.5 million pairs of new shoes and distributed them to 74 countries around the world.

This year, our goal is to place 200,000 pairs of new shoes on the feet of orphans and vulnerable children here in the United States and around the world. But we need you to help make that happen.

How can I help?

• Collect shoes in your community. You can get your church, small group, business, civic organization or family and friends involved. We provide you with a Shoes for Orphan Souls packet which includes everything you need to help make your shoe drive a success. Register here.
  
• Give shoes. If you’ve already helped provide a pair of shoes through the K-LOVE Drive, thank you! We would love your support to help cover the shipping costs of the shoes through your donation of $5 or more to help provide more shoes to children in need. Make a gift online.
  
• Deliver shoes with us. Join us on a shoe delivery mission trip this year! Experience what it’s like to be the hands and feet of Jesus when you personally deliver shoes to orphans and vulnerable children. See trips here.
• Pray for our ministry. We believe in the power of prayer and ask you to partner with us in prayer for our ministry and for the children we serve around the world. Download our prayer guide.

Buckner staff unveiled “The Barefoot Experience” in February. It features terrain from Peru, Ethiopia and Mexico, with the types of soil, rocks and debris commonly found in each country.

“We have roughly 5,000 volunteers who come through our center each year, and for many of them it’s their first introduction to Buckner,” said Alex Dean, humanitarian aid coordinator. “So instead of just coming into a warehouse and doing some work, we wanted to begin to provide a physical and tangible resource where they could really see the needs of the different countries we work in. The Barefoot Experience allows our volunteers to grasp the scope of what we do and why we do it.”

Kids from one spring break volunteer group took off their shoes at the end of their morning work session and stepped gingerly in the soil of Peru. They walked lightly across to Ethiopia and then Mexico. Their chaperones asked them if it feels good to walk barefoot. The kids agreed: it doesn’t feel good, and children in those countries definitely need shoes!

Many volunteers have been hesitant to take on the challenge, but the ones who do say that it gives them a fresh perspective on the importance of shoes.

“It was painful and sad,” said 10-year-old Raelynne. “The kids need us to help give shoes so their feet won’t hurt.”

Want to try The Barefoot Experience? Volunteer with us at the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid to sort and pack shoes and write notes to the children around the world who will receive them. Click here to learn more.

Larissa (pictured left, with her mom) and Kimberly Anne (pictured right, at her birthday party) chose to forgo gifts for their birthdays this year to collect shoes for children in need.

Two January birthday girls with hearts of gold decided to use their special days to make a difference for children in need.

Larissa Vargas of Houston, Texas, first got to know Shoes for Orphan Souls on a mission trip she took in 2012 with her mom, Candy, and Second Baptist Church of Houston to the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid. 

Months later, when it was time to start planning her 8th birthday party Larissa remembered learning about the Birthday Club on her mission trip and wanted to collect shoes for her birthday. She started planning the party and told her friends about her mission. 

“The other kids thought it was nice and they wanted to help me, too,” said Larissa. “I told them about the shoe warehouse and I told them about Buckner and they thought it was cool.” 

Some friends and family gave cash donations, so Larissa and her mom took a shopping trip to pick out shoes for children in need. They made sure to choose shoes with lots of bright colors, Larissa said. 

Candy and Larissa returned to the Center for Humanitarian Aid this month with their church for a second mission trip to sort and pack shoes. 

“Today I wrote a lot of notes and I put the shoes in the right size bins,” Larissa said. “I wrote ‘God bless you’ and ‘Enjoy your shoes.’” 

Kimberly Anne Wiggins of Midland, Mich., turned 10 years old on January 15 and she’s not new to the idea of forgoing gifts to help others. For her 9th birthday party she asked guests to bring canned goods instead of gifts and collected 99 items to help feed hungry people. 

“Kimberly is a shoe fanatic,” said her mom, Anne-Marie. “And my husband has given me a gift in the form of a donation to Shoes for Orphan Souls for several years. This summer Kimberly started a lemonade stand and sent the money she earned from it to Shoes for Orphan Souls, so this year for her birthday she wanted to do something else for Shoes for Orphan Souls.” 

She joined the Birthday Club and let all her friends know about it. At her sleepover birthday party, her friends helped write notes to put in each pair and packed the shoes up to be shipped. 

“I was very happy when my friends came,” Kimberly said. “My mouth was wide open when I saw all those pairs of shoes; I just really couldn’t believe it. I love shoes and am blessed to have so many pairs of shoes. I can’t imagine a child my age not having a single pair of shoes to wear.” 

Thank you, Larissa and Kimberly, for joining the Birthday Club! Because of you, dozens children will have beautiful new shoes to protect their feet and help them feel loved. 

If you would like to join the Birthday Club or learn more, click here.

Note: María, 8, lives in Mexico. Her family’s need for assistance through Shoes for Orphan Souls was identified by the Buckner Mexico NGO staff. In this story, she shares a little bit about her family and her life.

I’m an only child. My mom’s name is Apolonia Santiago and my father is Jesús Hernández. They are not my biological parents, because my mother was 44 years old when she married. She discovered that she could not have children and she wished to be a mother with all her heart, so when the opportunity arose to adopt me, she did not hesitate.

These years have been good in some ways and in others very difficult. My dad works in masonry and my mother sells grasshoppers or fruit, so their income is low or minimal. We only have money for the necessities like food, so my parents must painstakingly save for my school fees and clothing.

Lately I realized that I’m growing a lot and I need more things, which makes money even tighter. Shoes for Orphan Souls has benefited my family a lot. With the support of receiving new tennis shoes, my parents are saving money that can go to my schooling, food or a special treat like pizza, which I love but don’t get to eat very often.

The tennis shoes you have given me have made me feel very happy because they are beautiful and comfortable. I proudly take them to school when I have P.E. class, and now the teacher does not call attention to me for not having the right shoes.

You can give a pair of new shoes to a child like María for just $25. Click here to give now. Or, sign up to host a shoe drive!

A simple pair of children’s socks may not look powerful, but they can make a big difference in the lives of orphaned children around the world.

The Juneau-Douglas High School Interact Club is teaming up with Buckner International to ask Juneau residents to collect socks for children in need. The annual nationwide Shoes for Orphan Souls drive is seeking to collect more than 250,000 pairs of new shoes and socks, with a nationwide campaign. The shoes and socks go to orphanages around the world, as well as disaster relief within the United States.

“We hope that with Juneau’s support, we can make life better for children in the United States and around the world. And this year after Superstorm Sandy, we were reminded of how important disaster relief is.” Erin Gaffaney, Interact’s President and founder of this annual event, said.

“We have seen the smiles that a new pair of socks brings to children in the orphanages we visit, and we want to extend that same joy to others like them,” said Heather Weathers, Manager of Acquisitions and Shoes for Orphan Souls, “Because of The JDHS Interact Club’s commitment to this program, we can continue to increase the number of kids who will benefit.”

The reach is vast and a small donation goes a long way.

“Millions of children reside in orphanages throughout our world,” Weathers said, “And those orphanages are not receiving enough money to care for the children’s most basic needs, like shoes and socks.”

An unexpected benefit of donating new socks is the sense of satisfaction on the part of the person who gives, Weathers said, “At Buckner, we say new socks are good for the soul — yours and theirs. A person who gives can’t help but feel as though they also have received a great gift.”

Donated items should be for children and teens and, due to customs regulations, socks need to be brand new. For those preferring to make a cash donation, Interact will be at Walmart March 16 and March 30. You can also contact Interact by email at jdhs.interact@yahoo.com.

No donation is too small, Weathers said, “Most of the donations to the sock drive have come from families giving one or two pairs of socks. Every one pair of socks makes a big difference to the child who receives them.”

You can drop socks off at the boxes inside Fred Meyer and Walmart through the month of March.

You can make a difference when you sign up to buy a pair of shoes for Shoes for Orphan Souls, the largest humanitarian aid project of Buckner International.  After you sign up, you’ll receive a packet of information to help you get started.  Tell your friends, family, classmates, church friends, tell everybody to join KICKS FOR KIDS, so we can send as many shoes as possible!

Click here to sign up today! (Kids, grab your parents, you’re going to need their help for this next step.)