In the spring of 2012, a shoe drive boomed in Upper St. Clair. Leaders Darby Gallo, now a senior, and Christian Kelly, now a junior, organized this collection through Soles4Souls. This organization  has sent old and new shoes to over 19 million individuals.

Shoes were donated to collection boxes throughout the township. The Community Recreation Center, township library, and each school, elementary through high school, had a collection box. A box was placed at Christian’s Ethics booth, his school club helping child soldiers in Sierra Leone to get an education, at community day. The students made tremendous efforts to spread the word of their shoe collection. Flyers were hung throughout the schools, library, and township, encouraging the community to clean out their closets for any old or new shoes they weren’t wearing and informing them of the dropoff locations.

The secretaries at each school made announcements daily for the drive. Dr. Ghilani, Principal of Upper St. Clair High School, sent a mass email to all parents informing them about the drive. Darby and Christian both inspired friends and family to drop off shoes and to tell their friends about the drive. The two definitely captured the community. They expected about 500 pairs, and to their surprise, they found 750 pairs in the boxes.

“After learning about the atrocities that exist all over the world, I wanted to be apart of a solution in some way. I found out about this organization and knew right away, I had to collect shoes for it,” Christian explained. He loved how the community came together to give shoes to people they will never know. He could only describe the feeling as incredible.

Darby goes to Haiti twice a year with her church on mission trips. Darby said, “After seeing people live without shoes in Haiti, I felt obligated to help people like the Haitians.”

Christian loved the turnout this year and plans to make the program annual. In the future he hopes to start his own non-profit organization, since he developed a passion for charity work. Darby will continue going to Haiti and new places in the future. The program definitely was successful and motivated the township to think globally and act locally.