I’ve written before about the charity that hopes to put shoes on 10,000,000 people that don’t have them, called Samaritan’s Feet. Headquartered in Indian Land, the group works with volunteers from civic groups, schools and churches to sort shoes, deliver shoes, and give shoes.

I had the opportunity in late March to volunteer a couple of hours of my time to lace up and sort shoes bound for Nigeria. Now an opportunity has arisen for service-minded folks in York County to participate and hand out shoes to local children in Rock Hill, Clover, York and Fort Mill on June 13, 2009. St. Philip Neri Church in Fort Mill is the facilitator for Fort Mill, and they are seeking volunteers who are willing to spend 5-10 minutes with each child. Because Samaritan’s Feet doesn’t just hand out shoes – they seek to spend time with each and every person getting shoes. The volunteer takes a few minutes to wash the feet of the recipient before helping him or her put on the shoes, all the while sharing and caring for that person.

It’s a wonderful organization, and if you want to help out on Saturday, June 13, contact St. Philip Neri Church at (803) 548-7282. If you want to try and organize your own shoe drive, contact Samaritan’s Feet directly to find out how you can help get something going!

Is your church or school classroom looking for a great way to serve the needy both locally and internationally? Have I got a group for you!

Yesterday I was able to participate in a work-serve opportunity for Samaritan’s Feet, a charity organization that I’ve talked about before. A church group from Charlotte joined together for several hours to lace and sort thousands of pairs of shoes planned for shipment to Nigeria and South Africa. I went for the first couple of hours and it was fun to see adults and children alike participating, happily chatting away and diligently lacing all those shoes! What made it more special was knowing that even as we were lacing shoes bound for Africa, at the same time in Charlotte a church was spending time with our local homeless and needy, washing and adorning the feet of the less fortunate with new socks and shoes.

Samaritan’s Feet has a goal to provide 10,000,000 shoes around the globe to those who daily go without. In case you don’t know, having no shoes is a tremendous health hazard – especially in third world countries where living among trash and disease is the norm. The effort yesterday was to work on sorting through some of the 1,000,000 pairs of shoes that were donated by K-Mart earlier this year.

There are many more shoes to sort! There is also a need for many more shoes! If your school, civic classroom or church group would like to participate through a shoe sort or gathering shoes donations, please be sure to contact Samaritan’s Feet – all the work is done by volunteers and it is a FUN way to spend an afternoon helping people. And heck, it can also help teach your child how to lace their shoes!

Have you heard of Samaritan’s Feet? It’s a charity based in Fort Mill which has become a national phenomenon as millions of people watched basketball coaches across the country attend their games without shoes on their feet in February.

I know times are tough right now in our nation. But seeing a story like this makes me think that we can do more. Consider contacting your school PTO, or your company’s HR department, or your church outreach leader, and see if you can help Samaritan’s Feet. Their mission seems so simple, and yet so powerfully touching – all it takes is that first step.