Plan Your Field Trip To Share Your Soles

Bring your school, club, civic organization, or company!

First, please contact us with your contact name, school or company name, address and phone number by email at educationaloutreach@shareyoursoles.org or by calling us at (708) 448-4469. We ask for a suggested donation of $2 per child/$4 per adult to help defray our facility, processing, and transportation costs. If your organizaiton cannot afford this cost, but would still like to participate, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone.

If you call by phone, we're happy to explain the levels of participation for a day at Share Your Soles. We will also mail you a packet containing an introductory letter, posters for your drop-site and shoe-drive, as well as brochures and a whole selection of recent news and media articles describing our work -- we invite you to use these to materials to engage students and employees before their visit. We also cover the overall field trip and shoe drive process with your contact person. We explain the responsibitily of getting shoes sorted, boxed and to us in Alsip (IL) or to the AllenTown(PA) location. We encourage schools to do a shoe drive first, then during their field trip to our Alsip processing location, they can assist in processing the shoes that they have collected. We ask that each school has a basic ratio of 1 adult to 5 students.

This is the fun part: We schedule a day for the field-trip well ahead of time; Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday are volunteer days.

After the bus arrives at the office, at a pre arranged time, the kids tour the main educational and office space. It's full of cool stuff from the countries we deliver shoes. They'll get to see all of the awards and newspaper articles, as well. SYS Executive Director, Mona Purdy*, talks about the challenges of creating the foundation in her garage and transitioning to a world-wide operation before welcoming the group to the processing center. Staff then reviews emergency plan, rest rooms, lunch room, and other basic logistics of the day.

SYS Executive Director, Mona Purdy*, leads tour of facility telling group what happens at each processing station and explain why it happens - how THAT section fits into the overall puzzle of logistics.

  • Shippment waiting to leave
  • Shoes in bags waiting to get washed
  • Sort stations
  • Boxing areas

    During lunch, a video presenation of last shippments where the shoes went and who recieved them.

    After lunch, before breaking up into groups to do the different tasks avaliable, we provide a question and answer period.

    We then divide group in to smaller groups to complete the following tasks:

  • Goto the laundromat and wash shoes
  • Bag the wet ones and bring them back where they are then laid out to dry
  • Sort incoming, organize the ones laid out from earlier that week
  • Fold newletters that have to get mailed
  • Label mailings

    We are really looking forward to providing a day of education -- to teach children about caring and sharing!

    * As schedule allows.

    • Easy Drop-Off Locations

    Looking for a place to drof-off your shoes? Choose from over 265 locations in 20 states. Click here to find a location in your neighborhood.

    Corporate Partnerships

    Join Share Your Soles and provide a whole world of learning and growing opportunities for your employees and management team.

    3rd Annual 5/10K Walk/Run

    Thanks for joining us! It was a wonderful event on a beautiful day! View online results: OVERALL or AGE GROUP
    © 2008 Share Your Soles Foundation | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    Administrative Office & Processing Center: Share Your Soles | 11701 S. Central | Alsip, IL 60803
    East Coast Drop Center: Nexus Distribution | 7248 Industrial Blvd | Allentown, PA 18106

    Processing Center Telephone: (708) 448-4469