Happy Soles
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Dee Dee W. has a soft voice, but there is one time when she is loud—when she has found two shoes that make a pair.
“You always know when Dee Dee has matched a pair of shoes,” her mom, Rhonda, says, “because there is a loud victory squeal.”
Dee Dee’s parents are the founders of a ministry called Shoes 2 Share that sends thousands of shoes every year to many countries, including Haiti.
“I love sorting the shoes,” Dee Dee says. “It makes me feel good because I know it helps a lot of people.”
Six years ago, Dee Dee, who is 9, and her brother Jean Marc, 11, lived in Haiti. Then they were adopted by Rhonda and her husband, Tim.
When Dee Dee’s parents first visited Haiti, they brought some extra shoes and gave them to children outside their hotel. The next time Dee Dee’s parents came to Haiti, those children and their whole families were waiting at the airport, hoping for more shoes!
“Sometimes when we give out a pair of shoes, the person receiving them cries,” Rhonda says. “It may be their first pair of shoes.”
When Dee Dee helps in the Shoes 2 Share warehouse, she creates pairs out of hundreds of loose donated shoes.
“I like to look at all the different kinds,” she says. “With these shoes, kids can go to school, and moms and dads can go to their jobs.”
In the United States, most people have more than one pair of shoes. Up to 400 million useable pairs go in the garbage each year! But in Haiti, many people don’t own a single pair. They go barefoot or make shoes out of things like cardboard, string and soda bottles.
On January 12, 2010, there was a big earthquake in Haiti. Many people lost everything they owned, including shoes. So far, Shoes 2 Share has sent more than 40,000 pounds of shoes, medical supplies and other donations to Haiti. But they need people to donate more shoes. Maybe you could be the one to give someone in Haiti his or her first pair of shoes.
“God put the name Shoes 2 Share on my heart,” Rhonda says. “There are two shoes in every pair. And it takes two to give; one to give and one to receive.”
And don’t forget the third person—the one who matches the shoes. That’s Dee Dee.