Soles4Souls
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Staff photo by Tom Kelly
Bronwyn L. Martin, of Ameriprise Financial in Kennett Square poses with boxes of shoes that were collected for the group Soles4Souls.
KENNETT SQUARE Bronwyn Martin is hopeful more Chester County residents will become 'sole' brothers and sisters.
Martin, a financial adviser with Ameriprise Financial, is spearheading an effort by Chester County Women, a nonprofit networking group she started six years ago, to collect gently worn or new shoes for Soles4Souls. The charitable organization based in Nashville, Tenn., distributes new and used shoes to the needy across the globe.
So far, the organization has collected 50 pairs of shoes, including a new pair of dressy sandals studded with rhinestones that one local businessman's wife found at the bottom of her closet collecting dust.
The 44-year-old Martin was inspired to participate in the shoe leather drive one day after running. She runs three to five miles a day, four times a week, mostly around her Londonderry neighborhood.
'I work out, and I must buy new running shoes every four months or so,' she said. 'Used pairs sit unworn in my closet, and that just didn't seem right.'
She linked up with Soles4Souls, the brainchild of former footwear manufacturer executive Wayne
Elsey, because she wanted Chester County Women to participate in a worthwhile cause.
Elsey left Kodiak Terra Inc., a maker of work and outdoor footwear, to found Soles4Souls.
He estimated that Americans have 1.5 billion pairs of unused shoes lying dormant in their closets. 'We can use each and every one of those pairs to make a tangible difference in someone's life,' he said.
Since its inception after the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Soles4Souls has distributed more than 3.3 million pairs (one pair every 23 seconds) to people in more than 60 countries, including Honduras, Romania, Thailand and the Sudan.
Following the Southeast Asia tsunami in December 2004, Elsey saw a picture of a single forlorn shoe washing up on the beach. That triggered a few calls to other footwear industry executives and the subsequent donation of a quarter of a million shoes to victims in the devastated countries.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Chester County Women and the Rotary Club of Kennett Square will accept gently worn or new shoes through Jan. 24.
Drop them off at Bronwyn Martin's Ameriprise Financial office, 107 West State St., Kennett Square, 610-444-8312 (call first), or at the Rotary Club of Kennett Square, 301 Victoria Gardens Drive, Kennett Square.
To contact correspondent Sarah E. Moran, send an e-mail to semoran219@msn.com.
