Oh Pair Shoe Drive
Donation protected
Pair It Forward !
Sunday August 14th I set out on a mission to ensure that the children who lost everything due to the flood would not have to go without the basic necessities such as socks and shoes. Shoes that have been donated to a shelter are almost impossible to give to someone in need because once they have been worn by one person they are hard to pass down to another. Shoes can also be expensive to purchase new to give to someone in need.
With that in mind, I wrote a detailed email to all of my vendors explaining to them what our city was going through. I attached news articles, pictures and videos. I asked if it would be possible to get any shoe donations seeing how these children had lost everything and some had no shoes at all. If shoe donations were not a possibility, I asked if they would then be willing to reduce my wholesale cost which would allow me to purchase more new shoes with any monetary donations I collected.
The response from my vendors has been overwhelming. They couldn't get donations together fast enough. To date I have acquired over 5,000 donations!
Being that the kids were just starting back to school and would need school shoes, I was hoping to acquire donations of tennis shoes. New Balance has graciously agreed to reduce my wholesale cost so that they are almost free. It would then be left up to me raise the money to buy them.
My main goal in starting this was to provide as many new shoes as possible to the children in our community who had been affected by the flood. For those of you who may not know, this includes : Ascension Parish, Central, EBR, and Livingston Parish. In turn, affecting over 100,000 students. While I have been very successful in getting physical donations I haven't been able to raise many monetary donations to purchase new shoes and socks. Any future monetary giving will enable us to advance our mission and ensure that no child goes without something as simple as a basic necessity like a new properly-fitting pair of shoes.
Raegan Bowman
Oh Pair
8733 Jefferson Hwy
Baton Rouge, LA
70809
Sunday August 14th I set out on a mission to ensure that the children who lost everything due to the flood would not have to go without the basic necessities such as socks and shoes. Shoes that have been donated to a shelter are almost impossible to give to someone in need because once they have been worn by one person they are hard to pass down to another. Shoes can also be expensive to purchase new to give to someone in need.
With that in mind, I wrote a detailed email to all of my vendors explaining to them what our city was going through. I attached news articles, pictures and videos. I asked if it would be possible to get any shoe donations seeing how these children had lost everything and some had no shoes at all. If shoe donations were not a possibility, I asked if they would then be willing to reduce my wholesale cost which would allow me to purchase more new shoes with any monetary donations I collected.
The response from my vendors has been overwhelming. They couldn't get donations together fast enough. To date I have acquired over 5,000 donations!
Being that the kids were just starting back to school and would need school shoes, I was hoping to acquire donations of tennis shoes. New Balance has graciously agreed to reduce my wholesale cost so that they are almost free. It would then be left up to me raise the money to buy them.
My main goal in starting this was to provide as many new shoes as possible to the children in our community who had been affected by the flood. For those of you who may not know, this includes : Ascension Parish, Central, EBR, and Livingston Parish. In turn, affecting over 100,000 students. While I have been very successful in getting physical donations I haven't been able to raise many monetary donations to purchase new shoes and socks. Any future monetary giving will enable us to advance our mission and ensure that no child goes without something as simple as a basic necessity like a new properly-fitting pair of shoes.
Raegan Bowman
Oh Pair
8733 Jefferson Hwy
Baton Rouge, LA
70809
Organiser
Raegan Reech Bowman
Organiser
Baton Rouge, LA
