Paly’s Key Club is arranging a sock-and-shoe drive in partnership with My New Red Shoes, to take place Tuesday, May 30 through Friday, June 2.
My New Red Shoes is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide new clothing and shoes to underprivileged children in the Bay Area for their first day of school.
Key Club will only accept brand new pairs of socks and shoes with the price tags attached, intended for children between the ages of five and 12 ranging between kid’s shoe sizes one and seven.
According to Key Club president, junior Alex Ji, the logistics have yet to be finalized, but Key Club’s preliminary plans are to place donation boxes in the tower building, library, and Room 214.
“My personal goal for the drive is to assist [My New Red Shoes] as much as possible in making this drive a success,” Ji said. “Our ultimate goal for the drive is to get enough donations to give every child who can’t afford it a pair of socks and shoes.”
This will be the first drive that Key Club is holding at Paly this year, although club members also contributed to the Earthquake Clothing Drive that occurred in November. Key Club’s last event of the year will be a blood drive scheduled for the following Monday, June 5.
To draw attention to this end-of-the-year drive, Key Club members are passing out flyers which read, “Attention Paly teachers: Did you know that 25 percent of the homeless in Santa Clara County are children?”
“It’s our mission to provide disadvantaged kids a set of new clothing and shoes so that they may start the school year with pride,” said My New Red Shoes founder Heather Hopkins in an email interview with The Paly Voice.
“In addition to the school clothing drive, we’re going to have a series of summer volunteer days,” Hopkins said. “Students from Paly are already signed up to come to our warehouse and help sort and package the clothing for the kids. I would love to sign on a few more volunteers to help with data entry and other tasks outside of the [allocated] volunteer days.”
To aid My New Red Shoes with clothing collection and distribution, Hopkins hopes to enlist the help of many summer interns. She needs volunteers to assist with arranging prospective clothing drives and to transport gathered clothing to the designated delivery locations. She is also seeking volunteers with whom she can brainstorm ideas and formulate strategies to advertise, collect and store clothing. This would involve spearheading various “Shoebox” projects, which entail handing out “Wish Cards,” containing specific items of much needed clothing, to interested Bay Area organizations (business, religious, and social groups).
According to Hopkins, the idea for My New Red Shoes was actually born a number of years ago when her mother told her a story that would remain ingrained within her.
“Every summer, my mom dreaded the coming school year, so ashamed of the clothes she was wearing, and worried that she wouldn’t have something new to wear for the first day of school,” Hopkins explained. “The story always made me feel terrible until one day, I decided to do something about it.”
For Hopkins, founding My New Red Shoes was fulfilling a lifelong dream.
“I’ve always wanted to start a non-profit organization to benefit kids in some way,” Hopkins said. “One day while watching Oprah, I just decided it was the time. After a phone call to a particularly inspiring and brilliant friend, I built up the courage to get this done. It will be my proudest moment if My New Red Shoes can provide even just 100 outfits to kids who wouldn’t otherwise have something special to wear for the first day of school.”
As for the inspiration behind her corporation’s catchy title?
“The name My New Red Shoes just makes me happy,” Hopkins said. “In fact, just thinking about shiny, red shoes makes me smile. Who wouldn’t want a snazzy new pair of red shoes?”
Hopkins, a Princeton graduate, moved to Palo Alto in 2001 and pursued a career as a children’s author. Despite her busy personal and professional life, she invests much time in managing clothing drives.
“My New Red Shoes headquarters are at my home,” Hopkins said. “I’m the mother of a toddler, so I’ve basically organized this thing during naps and trips to the playground. Our warehouse is my garage!”
Added Hopkins, “If even one child will walk through the school doors this year, proud of the clothes she was wearing, I will consider My New Red Shoes a success.”
For more information regarding community service opportunities, contact Heather Hopkins via email at [email protected] or over the phone at (650) 283-5112, or visit http://www.mynewredshoes.org to view the information packet.