If you haven't seen it yet, please check out the article about this year's shoes drive in the News Press: https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/soles-with-a-story-rotary-effort-steps-toward-500-000-pairs/article_cfaedbbd-feee-4c91-9db9-b1cd9904e9e4.html
The day before the caravan and Past District Governor John Gill's trailer was set to hit our fair city, they had a stop in Liberty that Larry Lunsford indicated to us rendered the trailer too full to handle the shoes contribution from the 5 clubs that were set to converge at the St. Joseph caravan stop. We didn't want to spoil the fun for Larry by telling him the numbers to expect from these 5 clubs, but it was said that "it's a lot of shoes".
So, our club's shoes logistical team (Amy and Conrad Spaeth) prepared themselves mentally and as physically as they could to assist with transporting a portion of the shoes from St. Joseph down to Liberty.
Sure enough, when the caravan arrived, there was room for some of the shoes donated by Tarkio, Maryville, Andrew County, and South Side St. Joseph, but certainly not all of those. And we hadn't even unloaded the Spaeth's trailer of most of the shoes from our club yet.
When the dust settled, and the numbers were presented at the 25th Anniversary Roll Call of Shoes at the Rotary Youth Camp, the totals were beyond amazing.
Liberty Rotary had contributed 2,679 pairs of shoes and 623 pairs of socks.
St. Joseph South Side Rotary had contributed 2,651 pairs of shoes.
The Rotary Club of Saint Joseph had contributed 2,566 pairs of shoes, 1,393 pairs of socks, and $17 in cash. That's an all-time high record for the combined totals of St. Joseph #32 and St. Joseph East, and then some.
Kansas City-Plaza Rotary had contributed 2,254 pairs of shoes, 83 pairs of socks, and $25,34.
Marceline Rotary had contributed 2,025 pairs of shoes.
And all together, with reports from 50 different clubs and another district in Utah, contributions for the this year's Shoes for Orphan Souls campaign reached an amazing total of:
- 29,417 pairs of shoes
- 11,440 pairs of socks
- 303 pairs of shoelaces
- $25,325 in cash
But, we weren't done.
On top of all of that, the surprise ending included the unveiling of the Larry and Jill Lunsford Donor Advised Fund, for the purpose of endowing this shoes project in perpetuity, with a balance of $111,922 with contributions from 80+ donors. Several of these were from members of the Rotary Club of Saint Joseph. And the best part is, that was somehow kept a secret from Larry until Saturday.
If you haven't seen it yet, please check out the article about this year's shoes drive in the News Press: https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/soles-with-a-story-rotary-effort-steps-toward-500-000-pairs/article_cfaedbbd-feee-4c91-9db9-b1cd9904e9e4.html