Keep the Midlands Beautiful shoe drive fundraiser raises money to support litter prevention
February 24, 2022
Keep the Midlands Beautiful’s (KMB) annual shoe drive fundraiser begins March 1, 2022 and will continue through May 31, 2022. The shoe drive helps KMB to raise funds to support its mission to engage, inspire and educate the Midlands to invest in our community through litter prevention, recycling, and beautification.
Anyone can help by dropping off gently worn, used and new shoes at any time at KMB’s office at 1305 Augusta Road in West Columbia. If your local business, school, church, or neighborhood association would like to host a collection bin, please contact KMB at 803-733-1139 or [email protected] for more information.
KMB earns money based on the total weight of the shoes collected. Those dollars are allocated towards core programs including purchase of signs, work gloves, and litter grabbers for dedicated volunteers to conduct more litter pickups across the City of Columbia, and Richland and Lexington counties. All donated shoes will be redistributed throughout the Funds2Orgs network of micro-enterprise partners in developing nations. Funds2Orgs works with micro-entrepreneurs to create, maintain, and grow small businesses that sell shoes, which improves their family’s livelihood.
“The spring is a wonderful time to clean out closets.” said Laura Blake-Orr, Core Programs Administrator. “We know that most people have extra shoes they will never wear again and would like to donate to us. By doing so, we keep shoes out of the landfill, raise money to support our programs, and we have the chance to help families in developing nations gain economic opportunities.”
In 2021, 27 community partners and a host of individuals helped KMB collect 6225 pairs of shoes, almost double the record amount collected in 2020. Help KMB reach its goal of collecting 6500 pairs in 2022!
About Keep the Midlands Beautiful
Established in 1989 to serve Richland and Lexington Counties, Keep the Midlands Beautiful provides sustainable solutions for individuals and groups to improve the physical and visual aspects of their community through beautification, waste reduction and recycling, and litter prevention.
