Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls® and WFAA bring DFW shoe drive back home
This summer, Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls and ABC affiliate WFAA-TV are bringing churches, businesses and organizations together throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with a goal of collecting 5,000 pairs of new shoes for vulnerable children in North Texas and around the world.
Area businesses like Milestone Electric and Hawaiian Falls – who plans to collect shoes at all six of their park locations during the drive – are coming alongside the effort, helping to extend the reach of the drive across the Metroplex and beyond.
Hawaiian Falls also is offering buy-one-get-free tickets to all people who donate a new pair of shoes at its Garland location on Aug. 9 for Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls Day.
“We are thrilled to partner with Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls this season,” said Hawaiian Falls CEO Clint Hill. “Hawaiian Falls always looks for ways to positively impact families and children. When Buckner approached us with the idea, my first response was ‘This is a no-brainer!’ We hope to assist in making this the best collection year yet for these children.”
This July 25-Aug. 19 drive is a homecoming of sorts for Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls, which began in 1995 as Shoes for Russian Souls, a project of Dallas-based radio station KCBI. Buckner International assumed leadership of the program in 1999 and changed the name to Shoes for Orphan Souls to reflect its global reach.
Buckner Vice President of Communications Scott Collins remembers helping organize one of the first Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls collection drives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“We were just blown away by the outcome,” he said. “The people around DFW stepped up and responded, and we collected thousands more shoes than we thought possible in one drive. It’s exciting to bring one of our drives back to where it all started this year and re-engage our hometown front in meeting a basic need for children here and all over the globe.”
Today Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls is Buckner International’s largest humanitarian aid project, distributing more than 3 million pairs of shoes to children in more than 82 countries.
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