Cornhusker Bank and Peoples City Mission (PCM) are celebrating their most successful shoe donation campaign since the events inception in 2011.
Day Without Shoes is an annual campaign to collect gently used shoes for homeless and impoverished people in Lincoln. This year a new record was set, with over 44,000 pairs of shoes collected. The campaign ran from April 3 to April 15.
In 2011 Cornhusker Bank and People’s City Mission partnered to help raise awareness of the impact a pair of shoes can have on a person’s life by hosting a Day Without Shoes event annually.
Collection bins were set up all over the city at 130 different businesses, “What a neat thing to do as a business to really make a difference in our community. Cornhusker bank and their partners have made a massive difference to a lot of people here in our city that are just having hard times,” said CEO of the Peoples City Mission, Pastor Tom Barber.
Cornhusker Bank also donated $8,000 to PCM which will be used to purchase even more footwear.
Pastor Tom told KLIN News, “Here’s something that will probably amaze you more. I am guessing by the end of May they will all be gone. It usually takes us three to four weeks to move that kind of volume of shoes out the door. So there’s that big of a need.”
The event has come a long way since it began. “We started 13 years ago, we raised 5000 pairs of shoes… and we were pretty excited about that. It’s continued to grow over the years. Last year I think we got to 33,000 shoes which we thought, ‘How could we top that?’ and this year we did over 44,000 pairs of shoes… I’m just flabbergasted,” said Pastor Tom.
Over the 13 years since the annual campaign began, Cornhusker Bank and businesses have collected over 279,000 shoes and raised $110,000 for the People’s City Mission.