Charity offers shoes to victims
NORTH COVENTRY » When Ron Miller and Holly Wastler-Miller say they want to put “boots on the ground” in flood-ravaged Texas, they mean it, literally.
The couple are the force behind In Ian’s Boots, a small non-profit organization based in North Coventry that provides free shoes to the needy.
And while many of us are putting the finishing touches on our barbecue plans for Labor Day, the Millers will be in a 2005 Chevy van with more than 200,000 miles on the odometer, and a cargo area stuffed with shoes and socks, headed for the Lone Star State.
Specifically, the Millers will be headed for Katy, Texas, a town about 25 miles west of Houston where their friend and former North Coventry resident Barbara Kosciewicz now lives.
Kosciewicz and her husband Paul have so far managed to avoid major flood damage in their home, but their town and neighborhood are suffering.
She put the Millers in touch with a nearby shelter in Katy named Hope Impacts, which normally houses about 60 homeless
people, but is now “holding as many people as they can, said Wastler-Miller.
And next door is a clothing and shoe donation center named Clothed By Faith.
“We decided to wait a little until it stops raining and the waters go down a little so we can get through,” she said.
For their project, they teamed up with another Malvern-based charity named The Joy of Socks, which provides new socks to the needy.
“So we’ve got more than 1,000 pairs of flip-flops, sneakers, sketcher crocs, work boots and rain boots, as well as 940 pairs of new socks, that we have stuffed into that old van of ours,” Wastler-Miller said. “And we’ll get down there as soon as we can.”
The charity began after the couple’s only son Ian was killed in a sledding accident in 2010 at the age of 12.
Emergency doctors who tried to save Ian found a message in one of his snow boots, a Bible verse which reads: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Ian’s parents have looked at that verse as a message to them to continue doing good for others, and they have done so ever since, collecting organizing and giving away thousands of shoes to the needy.
Although the charity does not need any donations specific to their trip, they will need to replenish the stock at their warehouse.
“We supplied shoes after Super Storm Sandy and the number one request was work boots,” Hostler-Miller said, “followed by sneakers and school shoes.”
Donations can be left in the drop box outside their warehouse off Route 100, next to Diane’s Discount Pets and behind Hudson’s Gun Shop.
Monetary donations can also be mailed there — “after all we’re going to have to pay for the gas to get down there,” Wastler-Miller said with a laugh — In Ian’s Boots, 1486 S. Hanover Dr., Pottstown, PA 19465.
Online donations can be made through — http://iniansboots.org/home.html — the charity’s web site