Shoes can be dropped-off at VC lobby until Aug. 18

Victory Church is currently seeking donations for its annual Shoe Drive program, which provides brand-new back-to-school shoes for local children in need.

“Our hope is to give away over 1,000 pairs,” Victory Church Director of Outreach and Missions Nikki Woolery said.

The shoe drive is seeking donations of brand-new, back-to-school shoes from youth size 8 to women’s size 10 and men’s size 14. A collection bin is available inside the lobby of Victory Church, located at 4645 S. County Road 25A.

“Anybody can drop-off shoes here at the church,” Woolery said. “We have collection bins in our lobby, and we’re working on getting an outside bin.”

“We just started our collection last Thursday,” she said. “If anybody in the community wants to donate, they are welcome to bring them by.”

Shoes will be accepted until Sunday, August 18. After that, the shoes will be distributed to those in need at pick-up events that will be held at Victory Church, the Dayton Dream Center and the Lincoln Community Center in Troy.

“This year, we’re partnering with the Lincoln Center in Troy and the Dayton Dream Center, and then we’ll have an opportunity here at the church for pick-up,” Woolery said. “If there’s anybody in need, they can come to one of the pick-up locations and we would be happy to serve them.”

Pick-up will be held at Victory Church from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 5, and on Saturday, Aug. 3 during the annual Back-to-School Bash at the Dayton Dream Center, 2720 E. Third Street. Pick-up will also be available on Sunday, Aug. 18, during the Back-to-School Bash at the Lincoln Community Center, 110 E. Ash Street in Troy.

“Each child is able to pick-out whatever pair of shoes that they like,” Woolery said. “For the Dream Center and the Lincoln Center, we’ll be partnering with them for their Back-to-School Bash, so they’ll already have school supplies, haircuts, uniforms and things like that available, and then we bring in the shoes.”

Victory Church has organized the shoe drive each summer for the past three years, Woolery said. The event was started by Pastor Andy Warren, who previously participated in the Shoes for the Shoeless program.

“He loves shoes,” Woolery said. “A few years back, he had the opportunity to help with Shoes for the Shoeless, and he had the realization that there’s a need for that in our area.”

“When it comes to back-to-school, everybody does school supplies and everybody does free haircuts and uniforms, but we wanted to do something different,” she said. “Shoes can be very expensive, and a lot of times something that kids go without. We just wanted to make sure we made that available to families, just to take one more burden off them as they are preparing kids to go back to school.”