Have a heart, have a sole -- It's National Barefoot Week

Today I published a post on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog griping about how I can never find cute and comfy shoes to wear. It's meant to be humorous, but the truth is that people all over the world don't even have enough money to buy one pair of shoes, let alone worry about whether they look chic or not. In fact, almost 1.5 billion people in this world (and over 300 million of them are children) don't have shoes!


This week Nashville-based charity Soles4Souls is celebrating National Barefoot Week to raise awareness of how easily we can help put shoes on the feet of people in need. From June 1-7 all kinds of events will be held, including shoe drives, fun runs & walkathons, retail trade-in events, concerts, festivals and more.

FYI, if you don't know what Soles4Souls is, they distribute donations of gently used shoes to people in need. Since 2005, they've given away over 7 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes (currently donating one pair every 9 seconds.) The shoes have been distributed to people in over 125 countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States.

I think initiatives like this are fabulous. Everyone has unused pairs of shoes rotting in their closet, and parents of growing kids always have a pair that needs to be put aside since their kid has outgrown them before they've had a chance to wear out. Soles4Souls gives you an earth-friendly, humanitarian way to dispose of your shoes -- donate them to a person who needs them. You can visit their website for more information and drop-off locations. I found one less than 3 miles from home, so this week I'll be getting rid of some soles and gaining some soul!

How else can you get involved?

* Clean out your own closets and donate your gently used shoes (visit Soles4Souls for drop-off locations).

* Blog about National Barefoot Week to raise awareness of the initiative among your readers.

* Go barefoot around the blogosphere -- post your barefoot photo on your blog, Facebook or Twitter profile! Here's mine:



Have fun going barefoot this week!