2023 Shoes For Orphan Souls
To All Shoes Cheerleaders in Rotary District 6040 Rotary Clubs –
Good morning. It’s time.
On behalf of our District Governor Kent Shelman, I write to you, on Thursday, January 19th, to officially kickoff the 22nd year of our Shoes for Orphan Souls project in north Missouri. It is with great pride that I do so, as your Shoes Cheerleader.
While I hope you are gearing up for a big Kansas City Chiefs victory on Saturday afternoon, as we march toward what we hope is another Chiefs Super Bowl win --- I hope you are also gearing up for our great service project over the next three months. I know many of our clubs have been collecting all year round.
I sincerely thank you once again for the tremendous “service above self” efforts over these past three years in 2020, 2021 and 2022 as we have all dealt with so many issues surrounding the pandemic.
2022 (our 21st year) ----------- 13,464 pairs of shoes – 3,653 pairs of socks – 151 pairs of shoelaces - $32,666 in cash donations – and over 1,400 T-Shirts!
2021 (our 20th year) ----------- 15,505 pairs of shoes – 5,093 pairs of socks – 2,662 pairs of shoelaces - $23,187 in cash donations.
2020 (our 19th year) ----------- 16,571 pairs of shoes – 3,726 pairs of socks – 1,502 pairs of shoelaces – $12,635 in cash donations.
Informational and PR packets are being prepared as we speak by our partners at Buckner, and they will be e-mailed, and then mailed, to your club president very soon. I hope each of the club presidents will be watching for the packets, and I hope each of you as club members will be reminding your club president!!
Let’s make our 22nd year of collection our best year yet, showing Uncommon Generosity again this year. I would share these goals, thoughts and updates with you at this time.
WHERE WILL THE SHOES BE GOING THIS YEAR? – to Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
SHOES GOAL – I would like to establish a goal of 15,199 pairs of shoes. If we can achieve this, colleagues, we will eclipse a cumulative amount of 400,000 pairs of shoes over these 22 years. A source of great pride for us.
SOCKS GOAL – I would like to establish a goal of 4,409 pairs of socks. If we can achieve this, colleagues, we will eclipse a cumulative amount of 50,000 pairs of socks over these 22 years. A source of great pride for us.
SHOES CARAVAN – will be condensed to one weekend this year, tentative dates are April 26, April 27, and April 28. It could be two days. It could be three days. We are giving thought to having multiple smaller trailers operating in various parts of the district on the same day. While this might mean that I would not be able to personally see each of our clubs, we may need to move to this model for this year.
PROJECT COMPLETION and SHOES ROLL CALL - Given that we hope to be able to go back to our “normal rhythm” of completing our collections efforts at the District Conference, we will complete our efforts on Saturday, April 29 with our TRADITIONAL SHOES ROLL CALL OF CLUBS at the DISTRICT CONFERENCE at the TRUMAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY in Independence, Missouri. I encourage you to plan now for a representative of your club to participate in the TRADITIONAL SHOES ROLL CALL OF CLUBS.
WHICH CLUB WILL TAKE US OVER 400,000 PAIRS OF SHOES DURING THE SHOES ROLL CALL? I will look forward to seeing you on April 29th at the District Conference.
Please encourage each of your club’s Rotarians to come along on the journey.
Children everywhere, including Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, need your club’s shoes collection efforts now more than ever.
It will be a pleasure to join you to watch what we can deliver.
As always, I am here to answer any questions, and try to meet your needs.
Thank you for your unending support of this project, helping children you may never meet, just because. And thank you for being a Rotarian in your local community.
Chiefs 31, Jaguars 17. Go Chiefs.
Your proud shoes cheerleader,
Larry Lunsford