The ShaRonns Drill Team wants your shoes.
The Tooele High School team is currently working with recycling company Angel Bins to hold a drive for used pairs of shoes. Once the team collects at least 10,000 pairs, Angel Bins will send a truck to pick them up and donate the shoes to developing countries.
At the same time, the company will donate $4,000 to the drill team, said Courtney Baird, a THS senior and member of the team.
Based in California, Angel Bins is a for-profit company that offers fundraising opportunities to charities and schools as a way of encouraging people to recycle old clothing and shoes. This is the ShaRonns’ first time working with the company on a drive, said Kat Degen, drill team assistant coach, and they’re trying to spread the word.
“We’ve been posting on Tooele 411 and Facebook, the girls have been reposting things on Facebook about it on Twitter, and they took flyers around and put them on cars in parking lots,” Degen said. “It’s just word of mouth.”
The team has been working on the shoe drive for a month and a half, Baird said. The girls have set up collection boxes in several buildings around town, including Tooele Applied Technology College, the Tooele Transcript Bulletin, Performance Auto and the Tooele Chamber of Commerce and Tourism.
“As long as it’s still wearable, we’re accepting any kinds of shoes,” Degen said. “If they have laces they can just tie the laces together or rubber band them together … But they do have to be a pair of shoes. We will just keep the fundraiser going until we hit the 10,000 mark. We’re hoping to hit it sooner rather than later. It will help us pay for competition fees and costumes and things we need for drill team this year.”
For the time being, Degen stores the donated shoes in her basement. She estimated the team has collected around 500 pairs so far.