Shoe drive for homeless closing in on 100,000 pairs
Guarantee Shoe Center’s third-generation owner Rosco Rolnick remembers the early years of the store’s annual shoe drive — which began three decades ago.
“A couple hundred pair of shoes, a hundred pair, whatever we collected in those early years ... little did I know that that few hundred pair was going to work into several thousand pair,” he said at a news conference held at his downtown Bakersfield store Thursday.
In fact, Rolnick estimated that this year’s donations would reach 5,000 pairs of shoes, bringing the cumulative 30-year total to 96,000.
The donated shoes were headed for the Bakersfield Homeless Center, where they will be distributed to people in need.
On Thursday, local moving company Galbraith North America had a truck at the store, and Galbraith employees were loading bags and boxes of donated shoes for transport from Guarantee Shoes to the Bakersfield Homeless Center.
Rolnick and his daughter, store Vice President Sarah Rolnick, credited their vendors for donating hundreds of pairs of new shoes to the cause each year. He credited The Californian for sponsoring the drive each year. But most of all, he lauded the community for its generosity and its willingness to get involved in helping those less fortunate.
“I can’t say enough about the
people of Kern County and Bakersfield,” he said. “Very, very giving.”
Can they surpass a cumulative total of 100,000 next year?
“I know we’ll hit it,” Rolnick said of that six-figure target. It’s just a matter of how far over.
Cindy Lyday, external affairs manager with the Bakersfield Homeless Center, said truckloads of donated shoes (and other items, too) have been an annual blessing for countless individuals
and families at the center.
“We have a lot of volunteers waiting on that loading dock,” she said. “They are waiting for my cellphone call to say that the truck is leaving the station.”
A simple pair of shoes, she said, may not measure up in importance for some people, but those in desperate need of a decent pair of shoes, for a job interview, to work in or simply to walk in, can be a life-changer.
“When you have absolutely nothing and you are living on the streets, a pair of shoes is very crucial.”
The Rolnicks said the store takes donations year-round. Gently used clothing and other useful items are also welcome.
“Any time you want to clean out your closet, and be generous, we’re taking donations,” the elder Rolnick said.
Local marketing consultant Jim
Darling has worked with the Rolnicks on the shoe drive from the beginning in 1992.
“The key to our success is this 10-day to two-week window,” he said of the drive.
That’s when area residents truly come through.