Guest Post Rachel Quade

Hey Guys...Sorry it has been so long since I have posted! In Honduras we could only upload content from my phone, but hopefully we kept everyone informed enough via facebook and twitter. I do have some great stories to share from that trip. However, Rachel Quade, has written a fanstastic personal story that we wanted to share. Hope you all have a great week.

P.S. Emily is in Peru with a team this week and we will hopefully be posting stories each day from her!!

Thank you Rachel for sharing this with us!! I am so glad you were able to go and experience Africa last summer and to see how much that one trip has impacted so many others to DO MORE GOOD!!

A Moment Of Reflection                December 1, 2011

  So the shoe drive is over and things are settling down.  Where to next?  I have been asked to write a story about why I completed a shoe drive/collection and what motivated me?

  I took my children the library in October 2010.  The line to check out books was a little long and I questioned if my children could wait patiently.  Perusing the books that were up on the counter my attention was directed to a book with a pair of red tennis shoes.  All of my children had red shoes when they were little and I knew they could relate to the picture.  The book was “New Old Shoes” by Charlotte Blessing.  We read the story and something didn’t sit well with me. 

  I went home thinking about children that didn’t have shoes to wear, something we take for granted.  Upon much thought, research, and brainstorming I decided I would like to go on a distribution trip with Soles4Souls.  My choice was to go to Kigoma, Africa.  Through generous donations from friends and family, I was able to raise and collect all the funds necessary and even had an airline ticket donated to me in order to meet up with the group leaving out of Kennedy airport. 

  I remember not really knowing anyone and meeting up in the evening before the trip for dinner with a few of the other participants going on the trip.  The following day all 20 of us met at Kennedy airport for a 12.5 hour flight to Dubai, the first of several flights.

  Words will never give adequate justice to the beauty I saw in Africa.  I went to meet the people and I met them.  I relied heavily on our guide Katie and Bernard and equally on the other 19 participants in the group.  Many of the people I met spoke to me though we never said a word.

  Mufia was one such person.  She is a beautiful child that touched a place in my soul.  She was a beautiful child.   

  I was in Africa for 5 days visiting at least two orphanages a day.  For me, three hours of time at each orphanage and some shoes was simply not enough to give these children.  I came home and could not get the picture out in my mind of one of the children at an orphanage handing me their bowl of what looked like oatmeal in exchange for the shoes that were brought to them.  It may have been their only meal of the day.  Instead, I asked if they could show me how to cook and let me cook for them.  I could not stop seeing the children from the orphanages run with tears of joy in their eyes upon our arrival to greet us.  Forget coming to Africa to go on a safari I was meeting the people in their everyday lives doing what they do.  I was astounded at how little many had and yet the people were incredibly happy and joyful. 

  For two weeks after I came home from Kigoma I sat at our dinner table and huge tears would begin to swell in my eyes at how picky we all are about what we eat and don’t eat, what we wear, our hair; things that are trivial and yet we fret about them.  I realized that I was sad and I had two choices, continue to be sad or get up and do something with all the energy I was using being sad.

  As soon as I made that decision ideas began floating in my mind.  How can I get back to see Mufia?  What can I do now?  Why isn’t there a warehouse closer to where I live?  Why can’t I establish a warehouse where I live?  I called the Souls4Souls main office and just blurted out all of my ideas.  I’m sure I sounded like a crazy woman, but I could not contain the ideas I had any longer.

  From there I began working with Nicole Langford.  As clear as going on a distribution trip with Souls4Souls came to me so did the idea of trying to collect 50,000 pairs of shoes.  One night at the dinner table I just said “50,000 that is what I’m going for and if I collect 5 pairs than it will matter to 5 people.”

  I began contacting every person I knew- churches, schools, community centers and associations, local newspapers, and groups with which my children had involvement.  I created a flyer and began putting shoe collection boxes up in every place that would allow me to place a box.  I established a blog web page for others to track my progress as well.  I collected the boxes whenever I got a call that they were full.  People began calling me saying “we have 300 pairs of shoes, we have 1,000 shoes.”  Every time I got a call for a pick-up for a large quantity of shoes I would just sit and cry knowing how much it would mean to so many others. 

  One day, I was at a public pool trying to figure out how I was going to store all of these shoes.  The 80square foot space that had been donated was full with only 2,000 pairs of shoes.  Delegate Shane E. Pendergrass from the Maryland House of Delegates was at the pool that day and she said hello to me.  I told her I was perplexed about how I was going to store all these shoes and would love her input. Upon her advice I contacted Delegate Guy Guzzone also representing Howard County in the Maryland House of Delegates.  Within a week of speaking up and asking for what I needed, and with their assistance, I stood in an 8,000 square foot warehouse donated by Sanford Management Company with tears in my eyes. 

  My daily existence became plotting what route to take to get as many shoes in a trip as possible.  I created boundaries for myself by telling others within 24 hours of their call I would pick up the filled box.  I learned that approximately 800 to 1,500 pairs of shoes can fit in my mini-van; however looking out the rearview mirror may not be an option!

  As strange as things happen, my warehouse was next to the Tasty Shirt Company.  Tasty Shirt Company had recently changed their logo and had more than two pallets full of new boxes that I could use to pack the donated shoes.  Things like this would continually fall in my lap and when I needed something it was there.  This was my motivation throughout the process of collecting 27,160 pairs of shoes.  On days that I got tired I would tell myself, “It matters to Mufia.”  

  Wayne Elsey, the CEO of Soles4Souls was able to meet with me while he was in Maryland.  Wayne asked me, “What can I do to help you in your shoe drive?”  My response was to please come and talk to some of the kids in Columbia, MD.  Wayne kept his word and came out and spoke at a local high school that brought in more than 3,000 pairs of shoes and at a community college.  What I learned from spending the day with a big CEO was that they are human.  Wayne helped me pick up shoes from a local elementary school during our travels between speaking engagements.  Wayne has a great sense of humor and I live by humor many days.  He also LOVES waffles!!!

  Community Service has become a way of life for me.  I was very relieved to know that in many high schools it is a requirement for graduation.  Each weekend I would be at the warehouse with kids from various local high schools, scout groups, churches and just people in general helping me count and box up shoes.  When I asked one boy, a tall senior, why he was helping his response was “It’s just the right thing to do.”

  So, was the shoe drive/collection worth it?  Yes.  Will I do it again?  I hope to have a shoe drive again in the near future.  Ideas continue to flourish and I haven’t given up on establishing a permanent warehouse facility in the Baltimore Washington Metro area for Soles4Souls.  I feel continually blessed for the drinkable water that comes out of my faucet, for being able to flush the toilet, and especially for the shoes on my feet.  I have widened my circle of friends that want to make the world a better place one pair of shoes at a time and for that I am graciously thankful.

Thank you so much Rachel for sharing!!!

If anyone is interested in signing up for the Tanzania trip this summer, or any of our other trips--please go to http://www.travel4souls.org/

xoxo,

Katie Lentile