Shoe drive aids Christmas Without Cancer while reducing environmental footprint
Helping area families affected by cancer is as simple as doing a little spring closet cleaning, — and it can lead to improving the environment at the same time.
Christmas Without Cancer is accepting sneakers — both gently used and not-so-gently used, as well as new ones — at drop-off locations in Chicago and throughout the south suburbs until April 24.
The Oak Lawn-based charity, which provides gifts and necessities to families that are battling cancer, has partnered with GotSneakers, which will pay for each pair, reselling those that are gently used and recycling the rest.
Volunteer Jen Clancy, whose family in Oak Lawn has been affected by cancer, said the shoe drive is not just about money.
“That’s my favorite part about it — even really, really worn-out shoes they will take them, Christmas Without Cancer will get the money, and they’ll recycle the shoes. They’ll break them down into playground material so they won’t sit in a landfill,” she said.
Christmas Without Cancer Vice President Renee Copeland, of Alsip, called the shoe drive a “win-win,” because it gives a financial boost to the nonprofit organization as it helps the environment.
“I read that it takes 30 to 40 years in a landfill for shoes to decompose,” she said. “It’s actually very bad for the environment. A lot of people throw out the shoes they don’t want because they don’t fit, they’re out of style or they get damaged.”
GotSneakers estimates in the United States at least 200 million pairs of shoes end up in landfills each year, according to its website, GotSneakers.com. They can take decades to decompose, but diverting shoes from landfills isn’t the only benefit to recycling them.
“Recycling and reusing sneakers keeps sneakers out of landfills, reduces the need for manufacturing new shoes and sneakers, and supports a growing circular economy,” the website notes.
Clancy came up with the idea for the shoe drive while texting friends who are fellow runners ab out her growing collection of shoes. A couple of days later a website popped up on her phone about recycling shoes.
“This was one of the times that it wasn’t scary how much they know!” she joked. “When running shoes wear out, I’ll wear them as walking around shoes, but how many of those do I need?”
In fact, a quick look in her closet revealed she had six pairs to donate.
The idea has generated lots of enthusiasm.
“I’ve already got about 500 sneakers sitting in my living room right now,” she said.
Copeland agreed that the fundraiser is going extremely well thus far.
“My goal is to send in more than a thousand pairs of shoes. We get $1 to $3 per pair, so sending in the shoes would help our orga
nization tremendously,” she said. “Every day I have a new business or a new family or even people who don’t know much about our organization have heard about our shoe drive and they want to participate, which I think is nice.”
More than 50 businesses have agreed to host dropoff boxes, and 10 schools are participating in the shoe drive, including an entire district, as well as some Girl Scout troops and community centers. A complete list of drop-off sites is at https://christmaswithoutcancer.org/_gotsneakers/.
The drive accepts any brand of sneaker/gym shoes in child size 4 and bigger and in any adult size.
“We’ll take anything,” Copeland said. “People are donating brand-new shoes in the box. … I have some with tags on them.
“What I think is really special is families we have helped previously are putting boxes on their porch and are asking friends, neighbors and co-workers to fill their box,” she said. “Some of these families are still in treatment, so it’s an easy way for them to pay it forward without having out-of-pocket expenses.
“I am getting messages every day about someone having a box or a bag of shoes,” she said. “Today I picked up from three businesses. It started at the end of February and the response has been amazing.”
Clancy said drive is taking off “beyond her wildest dreams.”
“We’re waiting for the additional shipping bags to arrive. We have sent in 25 bags of shoes thus far,” she said, adding that each bag usually fits between 10 to 12 pairs of shoes, depending on their size.
“I’ve seen some shoes that I thought ‘Wow, that’s a big foot!” she said with a laugh.
Clancy and Copeland have been picking up the donated shoes, and a few of the organization’s committee members have been helping as well.
She thinks it’s wonderful that it’s such an easy project. GotSneakers even takes care of shipping expenses.
“It feels good to clean your house and purge and help someone at the same time,” she said. “It doesn’t cost you a penny.”
Copeland said every dollar will help the organization, which has aided thousands of people in the Chicago area since 2003 by providing holiday gifts and basic necessities to families affected by cancer, such as gift cards for groceries and gas, as well as financial help with such things as rent or a mortgage and travel-related expenses for treatment.
“Although our name says Christmas, we are helping families every day. Sometimes we help families more than once. They might come back later for additional help,” she said. “We’ve had a rough couple of years with COVID. I think this is an easy way to participate. It’s spring cleaning time too, so it’s a good time to clean closets and help a good cause at the same time. I have three kids, and I think I filled up a box myself!”
Clancy knew about the organization because she and Copeland are friends, but it really started to hit home when her father was diagnosed with cancer in March 2018. “He’s had a very long journey since then,” she said, because the cancer has since metastasized throughout his body.
Although the Oak Lawn couple hasn’t needed financial support from Christmas Without Cancer, “my dad talks almost every day about the care package that he got when he first started treatment,” his daughter said. “Renee dropped it off. She did it with her Girl Scout troop. That was four years ago, and he’s still talking about it.”
She said helping a local organization has special meaning for her because of her family’s experience with cancer, especially knowing all of the good this group does. “It means everything to know that there’s an organization that’s out there to help fix it,” she said.
“It feels good to know every single penny is going to people and possibly even to people that we know,” she said. “I know that the more money Christmas Without Cancer raises, the farther they will reach. I live out in Will County, and this part year, they’ve been able to help families out there.”