The line began forming outside the People’s City Mission Help Center near 68th and ‘P’ Street late Friday morning. It was the first day for the distribution of shoes to the homeless and low income Lincoln families in conjunction with the 15th annual Day Without Shoes Campaign sponsored by Cornhusker Bank.
Pastor Tom Barber is the CEO of the People’s City Mission and tells KLIN News they collected more than 63,000 pairs of shoes for men, women and children. “Shoes are so important to our guests, and socks,” Barber says. “That’s actually the number one demand they have.”
Barber says many of their clients don’t have a car so they do a lot of walking and a good pair of shoes means everything. When the campaign began 15 years ago Barber says they collected 4,000 pairs of shoes and it has grown every year.
He thanks all of the people who stopped by one of the more than 150 collections sites and dropped off shoes. He says many of them were either brand new or barely worn. Barber says it will take about three weeks to distribute they all.
(Photos: KLIN’s Tom Stanton)