VERO BEACH — The public is invited to participate in a shoe collection drive to raise funds for Vero Beach Elementary PTA. Donations of gently worn used and new shoes will be accepted. The amount of money raised is determined by the number of shoes collected.
Only 20 percent of the 2,500 pair goal had been collected with five weeks to go in the collection drive that ends Oct. 30.
All donated shoes will be redistributed to micro-enterprise partners through Funds2Orgs, a for-profit social enterprise, and used in developing nations for impoverished people to start their own businesses.
The drive began Sept. 1 and will run through Oct. 30 at Vero Beach Elementary, 1770 12th St., Vero Beach, FL 32960.
In the US alone, approximately 630 million pairs of shoes are thrown away per year. The materials used to manufacture a pair of shoes are created from chemical compounds that will create health hazards if left to disintegrate openly or in landfills. Gently worn used and new shoes donated to the Vero Beach Elementary PTA Shoe Drive are given a second chance to make a difference.
