Shoes For Haiti

My name is Cameron, and I created Shoes For Haiti as a way of helping people in a country that is less fortunate than ours. I have wanted to do this since I was 7, so for my 8th birthday party, I asked all of my friends to give me shoes instead of gifts. I recieved around 30 pairs of shoes. I had no way of sending the shoes to Haiti at that point in time, so I put the shoes in a donation bucket at my local Food CO-OP. Finally, an oppourtunity arouse. In my 8th  grade Communication Arts class we were required to do 2 hours of community service. I got started right away and within 2 weeks of learning about the project, I had gotten permission from my school principal to do this project within my school. I started by going to meetings that the teachers have every other day. All of the teachers thought that it was an amazing idea and all agreeded to keep a box in their classrooms. I gave all of the classrooms 3 weeks to to fill the box with as many pairs of shoes as they could. I told each class that the class that donated the most pairs of shoes would recieve a donut party. After all was said and done, the top classroom had donated over 100 pairs of shoes. There were over 50 classrooms that participated and each classroom had an average of 25 pairs of shoes. I collected over 1,000 pairs of shoes. I am hoping to raise at least $3,000 dollars to cover shipping costs and other additional costs that may occur during this process. I am currently working on securing a method of shipment and distribution, and will be sending all of these shoes as soon as I have collected enough money to cover all of the costs. I grately appreciate any donation that you are willing to make, large or small. This project has been one of my dreams since I was very young and I am very excited to make my dream a reality.
I believe that these shoes will make a big difference in many peoples lives. One example is that having shoes will limit the number of people getting jiggers in their feet. Jiggers are extremely painful small parasites that find their way into feet and stay there, and the only way for them to be removed is by a needle, which is usually passed around to many people. These shared needles increase the possibility of people spreading and dying of HIV and AIDS and other transmittable diseases.
I am extremely grateful to have the oppotunity to do this and I thank each and every one of you for your support.