Paradise Valley teenager donates 20,000 pairs of new and used shoes
Jan 12, 2018, 12:32 PM
(Public Domain Photo)
(Public Domain Photo)
PHOENIX — In what began as a Bar Mitzvah project, 13-year-old Paradise Valley resident Jackson Srioro collected 20,000 pairs of shoes and donated them to Soles4Souls, a non-profit that provides relief to those in need.
The Paradise Valley Independent reported that the project became a record, as Srioro was the youngest person in state history to host such a large shoe drive.
The shoes donated by Jackson will be distributed to locations such as Haiti and Honduras, places that were hit hard by Hurricanes Irma, Nate and Harvey last fall.
The relief provided by the second wave responders can often be overlooked in natural disasters or other tragic situations.
Soles4Souls was created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a nonprofit designed to offer high-quality, low-cost shoes to people in need, often those in impoverished areas and Third World countries.
Another mission of Soles4Souls that Jackson helped fulfill is keeping textiles out of landfills. According to the Soles4Souls website, more than 70 pounds of textiles are thrown away per person in America.
Jackson not only earned his Bar Mitzvah in this project, he earned the chance to travel to the distribution sites around the world to help Soles4Souls distribute the shoes collected in his year-long shoe drive.
