Mississippi State University students have started a campaign on campus to collect 1,000 shoes for the organization Soles4Souls.
Loren Bruce, junior nutrition major, said she is part of the Montgomery Leadership Program at MSU and is working on the service project in her final semester. She partnered with Sarah Miller, junior biochemistry major, to try to collect gently worn shoes of all types from students.
Adrianna Mize, freshman education major, said she also wanted to start collecting shoes for Soles4Souls on campus. She contacted Bruce, and they combined their efforts.
Mize, who has done mission work in the past, said she chose to work with this organization because it goes through the entire process of giving shoes to impoverished individuals throughout the world.
It has groups to collect the shoes, take them to the places in need, promote the campaign, size the person and give him or her pair of shoes, Mize said.
Bruce and her partner chose to work with this organization for their project because they understood there is a need for shoes around the world, she said.
“Here in America, we have so many pairs of shoes, and many of them are just sitting there [because] we don’t wear them anymore and can easily be donated,” Bruce said. “We thought this was a really cool way to give to those in need.”
Collection boxes are located in residence halls on campus and other populated areas, such as the Colvard Student Union, Mize said. The boxes have the Soles4Souls logo with a recycling symbol around the words The boxes will be available until March 31.  The shoes will be taken to Roanoke, Ala., on April 8, before they are distributed.
During this time, Mize and Bruce will continue to spread the word through various methods such as flyers posted around campus, fluorescent, foot-shaped signs above the marked donation boxes and messages sent to various departments alerting them of the campaign and asking for their help, Mize said.
Information can also be found at msstate.edu under Campus Announcements throughout the duration of the collection, Bruce said.  Day One Leadership students, athletes and religious organizations were also informed about the project.  M-Club athletic community organization members can donate three pairs of shoes to receive one service point.
Mize said she also plans to go barefoot for an entire week to promote her cause and raise money.  She developed this idea after she was unable to travel to the African country of Tanzania to help personally distribute shoes.
“A documentary would be so cool because we have so many resources here and people that would want to film and equipment,” Mize said.
The documentary would showcase the difference between how many shoes Americans own compared to those who go without shoes in poverty-stricken areas and would give both the informational side of the story as well as to the emotional aspect, Mize said. She said she wanted to grab people’s attention while relating to the people in need at the same time.