Rotary District 6040 is helping to ensure that vulnerable children have access to a necessity in life that most of us take for granted – shoes.
District 6040 is collecting footwear for Shoes for Orphan Souls, a program sponsored by an organization called Buckner International, based in Dallas, Texas. More than 5,000,000 shoes have been provided to children in more than 80 countries through this program.
Larry Lunsford has led the efforts for Rotary District 6040 for 23 years.
He has been a member of the Kansas City-Plaza Rotary Club for almost 33 years.
I was born and raised in Macon, Mo.” Lunsford said. “A childhood friend of mine from Macon, Scott Collins, is the Senior Vice President of Communications for Buckner International, and that is how I learned about the project in 2001, as I was preparing to serve Rotary District 6040 as its District Governor in 2001-2002.”
Rotary District 6040 now has about 54 Rotary Clubs in northwest and north central Missouri, anchored by the Kansas City metropolitan area on the southwest. Platte City, Weston and Parkville Rotaries are all in District 6040.
This will be the 23rd consecutive year that Rotary has participated in this project,” Lunsford said. “This will be the second time that we have done the project statewide with all the Rotary Clubs in the state of Missouri. The other time was in 2005 which was Rotary’s 100th anniversary year.”
Since the shoes will be shipped internationally, Rotary members collect only new shoes, along with new socks and new shoelaces. Each year about 100,000 children receive a new pair of shoes.
“This service/charity work is done by individual Rotarians in the Rotary Clubs,” Lunsford said. “The shoes collection takes all kinds of forms but has not really been organized as ‘drop-off points’ around Missouri. Each Rotary Club community might choose to do that, and I encourage each Rotary Club community to get its schools and churches involved with them in the collection. That is the beauty of the project - each Rotary Club community can choose to participate in the manner that works for them and can also create some publicity for their Rotary Club by involving the community.”
Weston Rotary Club member, Louis Smither said the shoes will be picked up April 18 at the Weston Fire and Ambulance Station on 45 Hwy. between 1:30-2:00 p.m. “Shoes were collected by my wife, Pam and me from Walmarts in Maryville, Atchison, Kan., Excelsior Springs, Joplin, Liberty, Barry Road, Arnold, Mo., Nevada, Mo., and Lawrence, Kan. Socks came from Miami, Okla.”
The Smithers, along with other Rotary members pay for several pairs of shoes out of pocket because they support the Shoes for Orphan Soles and find it a fun activity.
“For Pam and me, we travel to football games and wrestling matches scattered all over Missouri with time to spare for shopping,” Smither said. “The folks at the Walmart counters are always amazed about a cart load of shoes being pulled up to be scanned. The most shoes we bought was 70 at a time. The search is basically a hunt for good economical tennis shoes within our budget range. Weston Rotary’s budget for shoes this year was $1,000. Individuals matched that amount so a relatively small club will contribute $2,000 total shoes collected. ‘Service Above Self’ - that motto is probably approached differently by some Rotary members but those who follow that motto as their goal in Rotary accept and live by its steadfast purpose in the world we live in. Larry Lunsford fulfills that mission completely.”
Weston Rotary Club President, Lynn Johnson, said the final shoe numbers this year are 415, with socks at 300 and shoestrings at 51 pairs, more than three times the number of items collected last year.
District 6040 Shoes Caravan 2024 will have 39 caravan stops to pick up the shoes.
The shoe drive efforts will culminate at a Joint District Conference at Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. on the weekend of April 19-21, 2024.
The shoes will eventually make their way to Dallas, to be housed in the Humanitarian Aid Warehouse of Buckner.
“In Rotary District 6040 for many years, we have done a Shoes Caravan where we will drive around to all the Rotary Club communities and pick up the collections from the communities,” Lunsford said. “Missouri Rotary is fortunate to have an outstanding partnership with UPS who assists us each year to get the shoes from Missouri to Texas. The Humanitarian Aid Warehouse will sort and organize the shoes for the international shipment to many countries around the world where Buckner has field staff on the ground or has strong partnerships with the Non-Governmental Organizations in those countries to ensure this aid gets to the orphanages. Shoes are also distributed to orphans and vulnerable children in the United States. A short list of the primary countries would include Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru and Kenya.”
Missouri Rotary Clubs have set a goal of 50,000 pairs of shoes for collection. They are also expecting significant monetary donations from the state’s clubs.
“It is worthy to note – the other time we did this project statewide in Missouri was in 2005 and we collected nearly 71,000 pairs of shoes at a Joint District Conference in Columbia, Mo. that year,” Lunsford said. “It was beyond amazing.”
Lunsford, like many Rotary members believes that each community is a better community when it has a Rotary Club.
“This goes for all service clubs as well, Lunsford said. “Rotarians are interested in making the world a better place, both locally and globally. Rotary Clubs have so many varied ways they choose to help. Scholarships for high school students, trash clean-up, building parks, the list goes on. Worldwide, for nearly 40 years, Rotary Clubs are partnered with the world’s leading organizations on a path to create a polio-free world.”
For Lunsford, collecting new shoes for children around the world that Rotary members will probably never meet, is very rewarding for himself and other devoted Rotarians.
“A pair of shoes is something new for these vulnerable children,” Lunsford said. “A pair of shoes allows children to go to school. A pair of shoes combats disease. A pair of shoes is a gift to an orphan child who rarely gets anything to call their own. I know how impactful this small step of filling a basic need can be. I have personally traveled to the orphanages in three different countries – Russia, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic – to place a new pair of shoes on the feet of a child. I have witnessed the poverty. I have witnessed the need. So it is rewarding to partner with Rotarians in the Rotary Clubs of Missouri to encourage their help. The Rotarians belonging to the Rotary Clubs of Rotary District 6040 are the volunteer hands and hearts for this project in Missouri.”