Operation Good Shoes

The girls and I are prepared to send our first contribution to Operation Good Shoes.  You may remember me telling you about this wonderful opportunity last month.  In a nutshell, Soldiers' Angel's contact, LtCol Eric, is requesting new or gently used kids' shoes (for the most part, kids' shoes are ALL gently used because they outgrow them so darned fast!) for the children of Mosul.  These kids have seen more in their young lives than most of us will see in our lifetimes.  And, although it may not seem like much, a pair of shoes would be amazing especially if you truly needed a pair of shoes. 

I venture a guess to say that many of my readers have never needed a pair of shoes to the point that they were forced to run around barefoot as the rule rather than the exception.  I'm sure some of my relatives faced those issues growing up, but I also bet they came in contact with some hand-me-downs or their parents were able to find some way to get them shoes...in these kids' cases, there aren't shoes to have.  It's not a matter of their parents' inability to get them, in many instances, it's the case that there aren't any shoes to get. 

If you have shoes or can rustle up some shoes, just know that a quick run through the washer (in the case of heavily soiled tennies) or a Mr. Clean eraser can work magic.  M1 and M2's shoes looked nearly new after laundering.  And, because they are still so sturdy with hardly any wear on the soles, I KNOW some little girls in Mosul who will be happily sporting some new kicks very soon.

So, please consider taking LtCol Eric up on his offer to show these youngsters that people here know they are there and care about their health and safety.

Send your shoe shipments to:

CIVIL AFFAIRS
Operation Good Shoes
HHC, 2-7 CAV
4BCT, 1CD
FOB Marez
APO, AE 09334

If you decide to answer the call, let me know in comments!  We can keep track of how many pairs Most Certainly Not readers have sent. 

Comments

[armywifetoddlermom]

the Collective boxed, some clothing, 7 pair of shoes, and a few stuffed animals...

I doubt if they will be thrilled with the extras we stuck in, bu frankly there was room in the box...

[TripleE]

On the day you posted it the first time, I mentioned it to my 6yr old daughter. She immediately ran to her room and gathered about 15 pairs of her and her sister's shoes. (yes, they have 10x the shoes I do) We found a few more good ones together. They both recently had growth spurts and there were some nice little girl shoes to send. All were pretty new looking and I was happy to send them.