Church members donate shoes, go barefoot for charity

It took Janelle Fong ages to find her favourite pair of boots: black leather riding boots that matched everything in her closet and felt like a second skin on her feet.

She wore them nearly every day for every occasion, and never wanted to take them off.

But on April 17, a snowy Palm Sunday, Fong removed them after Sunday service at Bow Valley Christian Church. She placed them on the floor next to her pew, then walked away shoeless into the cold, slushy parking lot.

“I really value fashion, and I really loved those boots. But I think I needed to be challenged,” Fong said.

Fong, her husband and three children were among the hundreds of congregants at the northwest church who participated in Shoeless Sunday. About 150 of them took the shoes off their feet to donate to the less fortunate.

Associate Pastor Cal Hultgren said the idea was timed for the Easter season, for community members to connect with the sacrifice that Jesus made when he gave up his life.

“We wanted to challenge our congregation to think beyond themselves and this community. And the response was overwhelming,” he said, adding he was touched to see so many people trudging through the snow barefoot to their cars.

The shoes will go to the Soles4Souls, which collects and distributes new or gently worn shoes to needy children and adults worldwide.

The organization, based in Nashville, started by reaching out to victims of the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami, then to those affected by hurricane Katrina, and has since given out more than 14 million shoes worldwide.

Hultgren said it's estimated there are 1.5 billion people — 300 million of them children — who live without shoes, and Shoeless Sunday gave his congregation a sense of what it's like to live without footwear.

Many congregants got into the spirit, unzipping, unlacing and leaving behind everything from bright red pumps to barely worn runners. Some were expensive designer brands, others brand new and still bearing price tags.

The church has collected 1,500 pairs of shoes — about 500 of them from the St. Vincent De Paul Elementary Junior High School — and will be shipping them off on May 5.

Fong said she initially had troubles letting go of her beloved boots.

“But this was a good reminder for us to realize what's important in life,” she said.

Many people — including Jide Obadofin, his wife and two sons — returned to the church later that Sunday with more shoes to donate.

“We gave about a dozen pairs. My wife has many pairs. You know women and their shoes,” he said jokingly.

While the initiative was planned for Easter, Obadofin said he hopes people are inclined to make donations and sacrifices to help others, no matter the occasion.