Rather intriguingly and to the annoyance of drivers on the normally busy Miami expressway; thousands of shoes have appeared from nowhere to block a lane and stop traffic.
In a truth can be stranger than fiction story the Florida Highway Patrol received the initial reports of a whole expressway lane being blocked by the discard shoes on Friday morning. A dump truck was employed to clear the half-mile stretch from where there has been neither accident report or spilt load report.
Charity Soles4Souls works to ensure perfectly good shoes are not simply dumped in landfills across America when there are so many people across the world in need of safe footwear.
The Soles4Souls team is on the way to Miami and is coordinating a relief effort to move the shoes to Haiti. The island nation is still hurting after a terrible hurricane season and the shoes are badly needed there.
Wayne Elsey, the founder of Soles4Souls, estimates that over 300 million people are in need of shoes.
“We hope people remember us as a simple recycle-and-reuse program,” Elsey said. “We can take any types of ‘gently worn’ shoes. There is no need to throw away usable shoes because we can find the person who will treasure your gift,”
In Pure Spirit
How do you think the shoes ended up on the expressway? Did a truck spill its load?
How important are niche charities like Soles4souls? Would you support one in favour of a larger and more generic good cause?
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