Sole sister’s collection efforts no small feat

have the basic necessities,” she said, adding that the organization sends its shoes to developing countries such as Haiti and Honduras, as well as U.S. communities experiencing natural disasters.

Recipients of the shoes don’t always keep them.

One idea behind Soles4Souls is that people can use the donations to launch small businesses to “lift themselves out of poverty” and “provide crucial necessities for their families,” the group says on its website.

Referring to the site, Macy said the group estimates one pair of shoes can provide five meals to one family, and that 30 pairs of shoes can pay for one child’s education for a full year.

Many of the shoes Macy has collected have been donated by other tennis players, both at Santa Fe’s Rosemarie Shellaberger Tennis Center and Albuquerque’s Lobo Performance Tennis Academy.

“With tennis, you go through a lot of shoes,” Macy said with a laugh — she cycles through at least four pairs of athletic footwear every month.

Because her “entire life’s based around tennis,” she said, most of the shoes she’s received through the Sole4Souls footwear drive are brands popular with tennis players, such as Wilson, Adidas and Saucony.

She will accept nearly any shoe for the project, she said, “except for maybe high heels. … Whatever kind of shoe helps.”

Whenever she reaches 50 pounds of shoe donations, Macy said, she will ship the load to the closest Soles4Souls location, in Wheat Ridge, Colo. She just packaged her first round of footwear this week and said she is about halfway through collecting her second bundle.

Throughout the process, Macy has received positive responses from friends, family and strangers on Instagram — the social media platform she uses to raise awareness of her efforts. However, she said, like with anything posted online, she has received some “hate” comments.

“Social media isn’t always a place where there’s positive feedback,” she said.

Still, she added, every negative response “just drives me to do this more.”

Her parents, Eric and Wahlesah Rose, called her project “very impressive.”

“She’s always had her own drive,” her mother said. “She gets very passionate about things she cares about, and she knows there’s a world beyond hers.”

The teen, who is trying to launch her own nonprofit called Fearless World — which is intended to help build selfconfidence in kids — credited tennis for her resiliency and instilling in her a desire to make life better for others.

“I feel like it’s encouraging to other young people,” Macy said of her community service work, adding that her efforts with Soles4Souls could overlap with her ambassador goals to “promote the next generation of tennis.”

“If I’m a part of this … if [kids] have shoes, they can play [tennis] too,” she said.

Wherever the shoes go and however they are used, Macy said, one thing is certain: Every pair will stir change.

“No matter who you are, what position you’re in,” she said, “you can do something to help others in your schools, in your community and in your world.”