Wrapping Up 2016 Shoes Drive

Outstanding Collection of Shoes for Orphan Souls

With Big Muddy churning by just a couple of hundred feet away, cheering Rotarians chanting off the numbers by the thousands, the annual Shoes for Orphan Souls campaign wrapped up April 30 at the District Assembly in St. Joseph with another outstanding year – 16,777 pairs of new shoes, 2,103 pairs of socks, 158 pairs of shoelaces, and $10,717 in cash donations.

The show was stolen, though, by Maggie, the 7-year-old stepdaughter-to-be of St. Joseph East Rotarian Erik McGuire, who called for the microphone and donated $7 that she had saved to buy shoes.

Maggie was so inspired that she made a Shoes for Orphan Souls poster for show-and-tell at her school on Monday (pictured).

With more than a dozen clubs still to report, the total number of shoes donated likely will pass 17,000, bringing to more than 287,000 the number of pairs of shoes donated in the last 15 years, since Plazan Larry Lunsford started the project as District Governor in 2001. The Plaza Club donated 1,219 pairs of shoes. The District Assembly was held at the Remington Nature Center in St. Joseph. Here's the current tally:

North Kansas City (28 members) — 2,036 shoes
Higginsville (67) — 1,458
Kansas City Plaza (62) — 1,219
St. Joseph South Side (34) — 711
Marceline (24) — 663
Chillicothe (82) — 638
St. Joseph (62) — 637
Parkville (44) — 609
Richmond (60) — 602
Gladstone (44) — 555
Rock Port (25) — 517