Recycling company will purchase, repurpose

The Andalusia High School chorus is collecting gently used and new shoes throughout the community as their fundraiser for the year.

“These shoes will be sold to individuals in developing nations, such as Haiti or African countries,” Director Hannah Cross said. “Those individuals will repair the shoes and sell them at a greatly reduced price to people in their community. This provides much needed footwear for those in the community and an income for the ones selling the shoes.”

Not only will the fundraiser be a good time for Andalusians to clean out their closet, it will be a good opportunity to help the choral department and people around the world, Cross said.

“We’re doing this as a fundraiser for our department,” Cross said. “With this money we will be able to travel, compete and produce musicals in the future.”

The AHS choral department is looking to become more service oriented, Cross said.

“We are looking to become more service oriented not only in our community, but around the world,” Cross said. “This drive is the first step. I’ve actually had some students already ask me if we can do a clothing drive as well.”

Since students are collecting shoes and not money, the company with which they are partnering for the shoe drive will send them a check after they send in the shoes.

“We don’t sell the shoes,” Cross said. “The company comes and picks them up. They then sell them at a reduced price to the individuals, who then repair and sell them. We get a check based on the number of pounds of shoes we collect.”

The story of The Funds2Orgs Group developed through the years. It started with a single shoe that washed ashore after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. At the time, Wayne Elsey was the president of an international shoe manufacturing company.

Elsey went on to establish one of the largest nonprofits in the United States, helping people affected by some of the world’s most significant natural disasters, including the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. He led efforts to ship more than 20 million pairs of shoes to people and places hurt by natural disasters.

Cross said that there will be several drop off locations down around town, but she is still working on nailing down the locations.

The AHS chorus shoe drive will start Feb. 11.