Shoes for All collects, donates thousands, holds Long Beach walk

April is a bit early for a barefoot walk on the Long Beach boardwalk, but the nonprofit Shoes for All wants to make a point.

“That’s what makes it a challenge,” said Deirdrea Renwick, treasurer of the Albertson-based outreach program. “If you wait too long, you won’t feel the pain of people who are not wearing the right shoes or who don’t have shoes at all.”

The group’s second annual Day Without Shoes walk is scheduled for April 17 to raise money and awareness of Shoes for All’s mission: that everyone deserves a good pair of shoes.

A small group took part in last year’s walk, handing out leaflets and telling people about the organization’s mission. Some of those on the boardwalk even stepped out of their shoes to donate them on the spot.

“One gentleman dropped us a bag of shoes from his balcony,” said Dr. Mary Carlson, a Williston Park podiatrist who founded the nonprofit in 2010.

“It’s not nice enough that people are going barefoot, so they look at your feet and say ‘What are you doing?’ Then we explain and hand out fliers,” added Carlson, 56, of East Meadow. “The walk was a big success with outreach. We go to network and spread the message by word-of-mouth.”

Last year’s Day Without Shoes walk raised $2,800 in sponsorships, pledges and donations, said Renwick, 44, of Bay Shore, and the group also collected 300 pairs of shoes. It’s an idea Renwick first tried out in 2013 in Huntington, and it will now be a yearly event.

The goal for this year’s walk is $5,000. Sponsors include Frederick J. Kramer law offices, Montauk Tackle, Gera Gardens and the Schlanger Family Foundation.

Shoes for All has donated about 45,000 pairs of shoes to various groups since it was formed. It was featured in the monthly LI Life Volunteer Nation series in January 2015. Newsday recently checked in with the nonprofit to see what its volunteers have been up to in the past year.

Used shoes, new shoes

Shoes for All continues to collect gently used shoes, clean them and pass them on to those in need, but the nonprofit also is focusing its efforts on providing new shoes.

This spring, the group will deliver more than 100 pairs of cleats to the Police Athletic League in the Bronx, courtesy of a shoe store that was going out of business.

Shoes for All will also ask people to nominate families in need of footwear. With the money it raises from the walk and corporate sponsorships, Carlson hopes to be able to give families vouchers or gift cards for a new pair of shoes they can select themselves at a participating retailer just before school starts.

Details for the SPIN (Supporting People In Need) shoe giveaway remain to be worked out, such as how the nonprofit will find needy families, as well as a participating shoe store that will offer the group shoes priced at wholesale or a discount.

“People often want to know how they can help,” said Maryann Veltre, 51, of East Meadow, Shoes for All’s vice president. “The money lets us buy new shoes for people, so we can take the families to the shoe store and let them pick their shoes.”

There are drop-off locations at Carlson’s Williston Park office at 637 Willis Ave., Suite E, and collection boxes at the New Hyde Park and Williston Park public libraries.

Donations also come from periodic collection and fundraising drives, such as one with North Shore University Hospital, part of Northwell Health in Manhasset, for a spring clean-out that in the past has garnered the group 300 pairs of shoes; the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Central Nassau in Garden City and the United Methodist Church of Bay Shore; and a winter boot drive with Hub Truck Rental Corp. in Farmingdale. Shoes for All also receives donations from local Boy and Girl Scout troops.

Carlson said Shoes For All recently donated 200 pairs of shoes to Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Port Washington. The church distributed the footwear to those attending its outreach program on March 23.

Volunteers and groups ranging from a Boy Scout troop to a life-skills class at Herricks High School in New Hyde Park help manage the flow of shoes by cleaning, sorting and bagging donations at the nonprofit’s offices in the Capital One bank building in Albertson (983 Willis Ave., Suite 202) and making pickups and deliveries.

Volunteer help is always welcome, Carlson noted, especially drivers with vehicles large enough to carry the shoes when a distribution is scheduled. Renwick noted that Shoes for All is a resource for families that span the economic spectrum.

“There’s struggling working families not in the welfare system,” Renwick said. “With the money we raise, we want to gift children and parents with new shoes if we can. Even with both parents working, things are tight.”