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In the final weeks of the 2015-16 school calendar, Luverne Elementary’s fourth-grade teacher Jennifer Engesser asked students for their shoes.
“I figured we are coming to the end of the school year and many have outgrown their shoes,” she said.
Engesser’s request yielded various styles of footwear by the hundreds — all for the children in Belize.
“I never dreamed we’d get so many,” said Brenda Williams of Luverne, a friend of Engesser’s, who casually mentioned a request for shoes from another friend, Kim Bartling, Sioux Falls.
Bartling devotes much of her time volunteering in Belize, which is located on the Caribbean coast of northern Central America.
Earlier this year Bartling asked Williams if she could find six pairs of shoes for the children who often walk around their impoverished neighborhoods barefoot.
Williams said she visited a local Goodwill store only to find the necessary shoe sizes in poor condition and the purchase of new shoes was expensive.
She mentioned her dilemma to Engesser, who suggested she could help by organizing a shoe drive at Luverne Elementary.
“Luverne is the first to do a shoe drive for her (Bartling),” Williams said.
Expecting 10-15 pairs, Williams was surprised at the local response of hundreds of good quality, usable shoes.
After the first week of the shoe drive, Bartling took the first shipment of shoes to waiting children in Belize.
“This is so exciting as well as overwhelming,” Bartling said via personal message from Belize. “I am continually humbled by the generosity of my neighbors — even this time when the neighbors are in Minnesota!”
Bartling plans to bring the rest of the shoes from Luverne during her next regular visit to Belize around August, in time for school.
However, transporting all the shoes has been expensive.
“I always hate to add this, but extra money is welcomed too,” Bartling wrote. “As to transport the shoes adds up. My two extra 50 pounds (bags) cost $100 each.”
Once the shoes arrived in Belize, Bartling said the children’s excitement was overwhelming.
“One cannot imagine the excitement a gently used pair of tennis shoes can create,” Bartling said.
Locally Engesser said she emailed her fellow teachers about the need for shoes in Belize. In her classroom she showed a map where Belize is located and talked about poverty.
Collection boxes were located around the school for students and staff to place the donated shoes.
Engesser said one of her students took to collecting all the unused shoes from home, bringing in three garbage bags full.
“It was pretty simple,” she said of the collection. “I really had a very small part.”