Located in Rushville, Indiana, Changing Footprints is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that provides new or gently used shoes to those in need regardless of religious affiliation. In addition to collecting and distributing shoes, Changing Footprints makes a mark by getting involved with education. Members of Changing Footprints visit schools and youth organizations to talk about the need in the world as well as the need in our own backyard.
Locally, we serve the needs of communities through social service organizations, such as, Wheeler Mission, Catholic Charities, Horizon House, Westminster, Dress for Success, and many others. The economy has created an environment that has swelled the ranks of the homeless. Because of the loss and stress associated with the economy, battered women’s shelters and children’s crises centers are reporting a near record influx of people needing help. We also respond to requests from foster parents, victims of fires, flooding, tornadoes and other natural disasters locally, across the country, and the world. We have also provided shoes for the Indiana Deaf School (a very low-income school) for their prom and end-of- year activities and footwear for their summer camp program. Just after school began, we had a call from the local high school saying that a couple of the kids did not have gym shoes for physical education class. They gave us the sizes and 10 minutes later, a coach from the school came by to pick up the shoes….as she went back down the steps, she turned around and said “What an awesome thing you guys are doing!”
Nationally, we have responded to the needs of the Appalachian coal-mining region providing thousand of shoes that have been distributed through Manna from Heaven Mission in Myra, KY. Our local ministers delivered shoes to the flood-ravaged areas of southern Indiana last summer. In 2005, we responded to the needs of hurricane Katrina and Rita as volunteers delivered shoes to Red Cross shelters in Mississippi and Louisiana, and stayed to help man the shelters for three days.
Internationally, we have also responded to earthquakes, and other natural disasters, as well as to war-torn or poverty-stricken areas of the world. We have been able to achieve international distribution through church missionaries, relief groups, and international volunteers. We have no budget for shipping or transportation expenses, so the actual logistics of such deliveries is dependent upon the groups that are taking the shoes. Through private donations, we were able to provide shoes for distribution to children along the Afghan border. We were contacted through the internet by a US border guard that was touched by the wounds on the bare feet of children begging along the border. We also were able to provide shoes to US Medic units in Baghdad as they treated injured Iraqi children in their clinics.
Restrictions of overseas baggage and the shipping expense incurred by the relief groups make international distribution difficult. Because of this, only about 30% of the shoes from Changing Footprints go internationally and 70% remain here in the United States. Because of logistics, the majority of the 70% stay locally in our communities.
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