DEWITT COUNTY, Ill. (WAND) - A local advocacy group is collecting shoes for third world countries.
Olivia Klemm is leading the collection at Storage Unlimited in Clinton. The goal is to collect 100 bags of 25 different pairs of gently used or new shoes for Funds2Orgs.
"Each bag will contain a variety of men's shoes, kid's shoes and women's shoes," Klemm explained.
Funds2Orgs is a for-profit social enterprise company. Shoes are collected from fundraising organizations and then are taken to developing nations for micro-entrepreneurs. Mirco-entrepreneurs are people who have little to no income or livelihood. The first bag of shoes is given to the mirco-entrepreneur for free and then once they are able to turn a profit they will buy bags of shoes from Funds2Orgs to continue their business.
Klemm said she loves giving back to her community, as well as other communities around the world.
"I love helping those in developing nations who need the tools to be able to support their families and I also love DeWitt County," said Klemm.
Through this collection Klemm hopes to raise enough funds for her local advocacy group to prevent wind turbines from being built in DeWitt County.
"I'm a farmer here and I want to protect our county," she explained.
The shoe's will be collected until Saturday, September 7. People wishing to donate can drop off shoes at Storage Unlimited from 9 AM to 5 PM on Thursday and Friday.
