Five Years After Hurricane Katrina: Soles4Souls Continues to Give Shoes to Gulf Coast Residents

In 2005, a footwear executive named Wayne Elsey called hundreds of his friends and colleagues in the shoe industry to gather new shoes for victims of Hurricane Katrina. He set up a website called KatrinaShoes.org to help publicize the effort, and over one million pairs of brand new shoes were donated by almost every shoe company in existence.

Soon after, Elsey's effort for people reeling from Hurricane Katrina became a full-time job under the name of Soles4Souls. It now counts famous actors, athletes and musicians as its ambassadors. The charity recently crossed the 10 million pair mark in donated footwear (into 126 countries) and is rapidly growing to become one of the most recognized charities in North America.

Few people are aware that Elsey and his team continue donating brand new shoes to people living in the Gulf Coast. "We cannot forget our friends in the Gulf Coast who are still working to rebuild their lives in the wake of the costliest natural disaster in our country's history," Elsey said. "A pair of new shoes is a luxury item to the thousands of Americans still living in FEMA trailers and struggling day-to-day. The least we can do is take care of their footwear needs," Elsey said.

The charity is donating another 50,000 pairs of shoes to residents in Gulf Port, Biloxi and New Orleans through trusted local agencies like Streams of Life in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They are continuing to distribute food, clothing, and household items to individual families on behalf of non-profit organizations like Soles4Souls. Some of those receiving supplies include single moms, mentally handicapped adults, veteran's groups, the working poor, and inner-city school children.

Read more via KatrinaShoes.org

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