Shoes for All: Serving a good purpose one shoe at a time

"I believe that everyone deserves a good pair of shoes and healthy feet. Please enjoy this pair of shoes and contact me if you are experiencing any foot problems."

Those words, written by Dr. Mary Carlson, a podiatrist from East Meadow, are featured on the tag attached to every pair of shoes given out to people in need of proper-fitting footwear through her charity, Shoes for All. The nonprofit Albertson-based shoe outreach program collects donated footwear and holds events several times a year, where gently used shoes are given to those in need. Carlson, 55, got the idea when she saw the enthusiastic response to a shoe drive at a street fair. "Everybody came with bags of shoes. I was shocked."

As a podiatrist, Carlson was familiar with people's complaints about their shoes and their feet hurting. "So I decided to do a shoe drive to give back to the community and get shoes out of their hands and into the hands of people who needed a new pair of shoes," she said.

The premise of Shoes for All, which Carlson began in 2010, is simple: "If you don't want to walk in your shoes, please give them to someone who does."

Shoes for All holds four large donation events a year and in addition passes along shoes to other organizations to distribute about every four weeks. The group did two such events during this holiday season at Harvest for the World soup kitchen in Roosevelt — one on the Saturday before Thanksgiving; the other on the Saturday before Christmas. Attendees waited in line and were ushered in a few families at a time to browse. Both times, volunteers handed out nearly 300 pairs of shoes. Attendees are limited to one pair per person.

On the chilly December Saturday, 9-year-old Jessica Steckel of Merrick came to distribute shoes she donated. Her mission to help others began in May when Jessica and her mom, Anne Steckel, 46, were planning Jessica's birthday party. Jessica asked friends and family to donate shoes or gift cards from Payless ShoeSource instead of bringing presents.

"I didn't need any more toys," Jessica said.

She got the idea from watching a show on the Disney Channel in which people were helping others. "Somebody did it with clothes, and I thought I could do it with shoes. We got a bunch of Disney shoes, too, when we bought them," Jessica said.

She raised $500 in donations, which she then used to purchase 23 pairs of shoes online from Payless. "I got all sizes, from kids size 8 to adult size 4. I got three pairs of shoes and the rest [were] boots for the cold weather."

At the event, Jessica engaged with the crowd, homing in on families with kids looking for shoes. Kneeling on the light-blue plastic tablecloths where the shoes were displayed, she asked children about their shoe size and what style they were looking for. She often led them to a certain pair that matched their description.

After more than an hour, she dusted her hands off after helping two families who had young girls. "I finally gave the black sparkly shoes to somebody," Jessica told her mom as she blew on her hands to warm them. "I feel like everything went well."

She wants to continue to help find shoes for Shoes for All to distribute. "We were talking to the parks where I ice-skate and we might set up donation boxes," Jessica said. "I really just like helping. It kind of just felt really good."

Those Disney shoes Jessica donated were appreciated by Cornysha Monclair, 6, of Elmont, and her mom, Carline Rene, who came to Harvest for the World to look for shoes and visit the soup kitchen's food and toy donation centers. "I got some 'Shake It Up' sneakers," Cornysha said, happily holding up colorful shoes.

On this day, there were about eight volunteers on hand to set up things, help people look for shoes, clean and maintain order. Their presence and gift of shoes rounded out the soup kitchen's distribution of toys and food that day. "There's never enough people, so it's nice to be able to reach out to Dr. Mary," said Joanna Bell-Richards, Harvest for the World's executive director. "It's a wonderful partnership. She has her shoe message and we have our food outreach. What better way to share, especially this time of year?"

BIG MISSION IN A SMALL BOX

Shoes for All has given away 26,000 pairs of shoes since it began. It incorporated as a nonprofit in 2012 and works with other charities and organizations to distribute the shoes. Volunteers help collect and clean the shoes before they're distributed. "We always need gently used shoes," Carlson said, especially men's shoes. "The need is all year long and we continually get all year long."

Carlson estimates that 98 percent of the donated shoes are reusable. Volunteers help clean, sort and store the shoes at two office rooms provided by Capital One Bank on Willis Avenue in Albertson. People can drop off shoes at her podiatry office in Williston Park and at two other locations.

Board members include Elaine DiBiasio, a pharmacy assistant at Nassau University Medical Center, who has known Carlson for 40 years. "We met the first day of high school when we were 13 years old," said DiBiasio, 54, of Farmingdale. "We are a working board, we pitch in and help, and we develop our policies on a case-by-case basis." There's very little overhead, and no paid staff, so all efforts go to distributing shoes, she noted.

In addition to shoe drives, the organization also works regularly with area groups that distribute clothing such as the Junior League, Interfaith Nutrition Network, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, Dress for Success and the Hempstead Hispanic Civic Association to provide shoes to the people they serve. "Just the other day we gave 1,170 pairs of shoes to several organizations for distribution," DiBiasio said. Most of those shoes came from Farmingdale area Girl Scouts, who gathered close to 1,000 pairs of shoes in three shoe drives they organized to benefit Shoes for All during the fall, DiBiasio said. On Jan. 13, Shoes for All passed those shoes along to the Hempstead Hispanic Civic Association and the AIDS Center of Queens County, Carlson said.

DiBiasio said Shoes for All has been contacted by Island Harvest about a possible partnership.

The nine-person board holds its monthly meetings at the bank. Volunteers sort, clean and store shoes there, too, as well as in some of the volunteers' garages when there's a bumper crop of shoes right before a large event. The bank is also where, every few weeks, members collect 300 to 600 pairs of shoes and arranges events to keep the shoes moving to the people who need them.

It's that need that keeps Carlson motivated to collect, clean and hand out shoes with "my shoe crew," as she calls the volunteers who work with her.

She recalled seeing one man on line for shoes who was eyeing some work boots tucked away in a box. Carlson hadn't planned to put them out because they needed cleaning, but when she saw him watching the boots, she added them into the mix. "When I put them out, he jumped the fence and grabbed them, he wanted a pair of boots so badly," she said.

Another time, she received a thank-you note from a veteran who was happy to now have shoes he could wear to church. "We call him Happy Feet," she said.

And then there was a young boy who came to look over the shoes on display several times, checking out all different kinds, not just ones that would fit him, and then leaving for a bit before coming back. "We wondered where his parents were," Carlson said. "Then he left with a pair of girl's shoes that weren't even his size, and we asked him why. And he said they were for his sister, because she didn't have any shoes. That gets you and that keeps you going."

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

Shoes for All volunteer Maryann Veltre of East Meadow is passionate about getting shoes to people who need them.

"What keeps me going is there's such a need," said Veltre, 50, who teaches in Canarsie, Brooklyn. "There's so many shoes people don't wear that we could take and get a pair of shoes on the feet of those who need them."

The charity provides what she calls a really basic necessity. "It keeps me motivated and going. It's always a challenge because there's so many seasons and weather events that people need shoes for. We live day-to-day and go on about our lives, and there's people who can't do that. We can try to help provide that and we can be part of that effort."

Veltre has volunteered with Shoes for All since its first drive at a street fair in 2010. She is also a board member and the group's vice president.

Her mission this year, Veltre said, is to find a corporate sponsor to help provide shoes for the group to distribute locally.

Shoes for All also plans to offer a local challenge on April 5: One Day Without Shoes. Supporters are urged to take off their shoes for the day, or an hour — whatever portion of the day they want to commit for — and walk without shoes to create awareness of what it's like for kids who don't have shoes. The fundraising event was started by Toms Shoes three years ago.

"Walk without shoes to create awareness of kids who don't have shoes," Veltre said. "We'll put a challenge page on the website [shoesforall-sfa.com] where people can either collect pledges for walking without shoes, or pledge to support someone who is walking without shoes that day."

The money raised will stay with Shoes for All and support local efforts, she said. "We want it to stay here and help us here."

SIGN ME UP

Shoes for All needs volunteers to collect shoes from its donation points, clean them and work in the office and help at events. Donations are accepted at the Williston Park Public Library, 494 Willis Ave., and the East Williston Public Library, 2 Prospect St. Shoe donations also are accepted at podiatrist Mary Carlson's office, 637 Willis Ave., Williston Park, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 3-7 p.m. Thursdays; and 8:30-11:30 a.m. Saturdays.

The nonprofit's office is housed at the Capitol One Bank, 983 Willis Ave., Suite 202, Albertson.

To learn more about Shoes for All's volunteer needs, call 516-248-8188 or go to shoesforall-sfa.com

You Might Consider . . .
Getting shoes on everyone's feet is one of the missions of several Long Island charities and nonprofits. Here are five organizations that accept shoe donations.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island
Contact: 631-234-0000, bbbsli.org

Junior League of Long Island
1395 Old Northern Blvd., Roslyn
Contact: 516-484-0485, jlli.org/thrift-store

Goodwill in Massapequa, East Northport, Lake Ronkonkoma, Centereach
Contact: 718-728-5400; goodwillnynj.org

One Small Step
7919 Jericho Tpke., Woodbury
Contact: soles4souls.org

Community Thrift Shop
274 New York Ave., Huntington
Contact: 631-271-4883

For more information and opportunities, contact the Long Island Volunteer Center at 516-564-5482; longislandvolunteercenter.org