This past Labor Day was our 3rd Annual Back to School Shoe Drive. While it was a little different than years past, it was still a smashing success! This year, we decided to only provide brand new shoes for our youth, which means that we had to stretch our dollars as far as possible. We also decided to forego the large event in favor of just filling requests to maximize our effectiveness.
Our request form was open for several weeks and we received 104 requests from 30 families for shoes. We are very happy to say that we were able to fill every single request (with a few extras that came the day of) for our families.
We raised just shy of $900 in monetary donations specifically for this event and ended up spending just over $1,000 to purchase all of our shoes. While the fundraising was crucial to our success, we enjoyed the support and help from several local businesses and organizations who helped us this year and in previous years.
We’d like to extend a huge thank you to the following businesses and people for their continued support because, without them, none of this would be possible.
Our Families – We do not take our responsibility to serve lightly. We are honored that you trust us enough to share your needs with us and to allow us to help you meet those needs. It is a blessing to serve you and it was great to see everyone’s smiling faces at the event.
Our Volunteers – Our organization is entirely volunteer-based and nothing that we do would be possible without the hard work and dedication of these individuals. Our volunteers combed through the request forms, compiled shopping lists, went out and made multiple trips to purchase shoes, sorted and bagged the requests for families, and they were there to hand shoes out on the day of the event. Their tireless efforts are what make our organization what it is and we could not be more grateful.
Our Donors – No matter what the cause, you always have a way of showing up when it matters to help us make a positive impact in our community. Thank you for believing in our mission and for continuing to be a part of our efforts to put our future, our youth, first!
Gabe’s of Vineland – The department store was gracious enough to provide us with a 10% discount on every pair of shoes that we purchased. Combining that discount with their already low prices allowed us to purchase the majority of our shoes at an extremely affordable rate.
Target of Millville – The store donated a $100 gift card that we used to purchase 10 pairs of shoes for our families.
First United Methodist Church of Millville – The church congregation has been extremely supportive in helping our organization meet our goals. Every year, they do a specific offering for our shoe drive and we were able to raise $262 from just one service. This was a big part of us meeting our goals this year. They also allow us to use their facilities for our events which gives us a central location in the heart of Millville.
Al’s Shoes of Vineland – Owner Brian Lankin has long been a supporter of our work and he gave us an extremely discounted price on multiple pairs of shoes that we needed to fill our orders.
If you need any services or goods, please consider supporting these businesses and organizations because they support our community. If you would like to continue supporting our work, please visit here and consider becoming a monthly donor so that we can continue to do our work.