BY NICK McCOY
The Tiger Fitness Center is hosting a shoe donation drive located in Cunningham Hall. The donation allows students to give away shoes to the Fitness Center, which will then be given to people in need.
The donation also serves as a great way of introducing students to the fitness center and helps them get involved.
“We want people to get into the fitness center,” said Tiger Fitness coordinator and instructor Anthony Fox. “We want people to start thinking about getting active, but also give them an opportunity to participate on campus and benefit others.”
The shoe donation also gives students an incentive to do something else with their old shoes besides just throwing them away.
“Around this time of year, kids are trying to get their house cleaned up,” Fox said. “Instead of throwing those old shoes away, we would like people to bring them in and work with this company.”
Among the items often donated to homeless shelters, shoes and socks are the most requested and needed. Fox hopes that the shoes given away can help many others in less developed countries.
“We want to give others the opportunity to walk where they’re going,” Fox said. “In third world countries, they don’t have the ability to hop on a scooter or hop off a train like us. Shoes are important because their main mode of transportation is their feet.”
This is the third year that the Fitness Center has hosted this sort of donation, with the Soles4Souls donation taking place in 2021. While it is still too early for exact numbers for this year’s donation, the Fitness Center has collected an impressive amount of footwear in previous years.
“I believe our first year, they donated about 1,000 pairs,” Fox said. “Last year, there were about 500 to 700 pairs.”
This donation is a great way for students to not only help out those in need but also initiate themselves on campus and get involved, whether it be physically in the Fitness Center or just by donating a pair of shoes.