Anyone who has ever questioned the impact that one person, one family, or one community can make should spend a few hours sorting through the hundreds of shoes collected by the Bansal family of Harmon Cove.
Since the beginning of November, the Bansals – Kapil, Charu, and their 8-year-old daughter Avika – have been working with the town to collect new and used shoes for the needy.
According to Kapil Bansal, his daughter got the idea for the shoe drive after reading about other kids her age doing similar good works.
“She reads a lot of magazines and journals that we subscribe to,” he said. “So, she read stories of kids who were doing similar work all around the country, not necessarily collecting shoes, but other kids who were in leadership positions and doing activities that benefit others.”
The Bansals estimate they have so far collected almost 700 pairs of shoes.
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“That prompted the idea to do our own shoe drive,” Bansal said.
At first, Avika suggested doing a shoe drive among the Bansals’ friends and extended family. Eventually, however, the project expanded to include the entire community. With a goal of collecting 500 pairs of shoes, the Bansals set up collection boxes at various sites around town. Boxes were set up at the library and the Secaucus Recreation Center.
Various organizations that learned about the shoe drive did their own collections and then donated their collected shoes to the Bansals. The Secaucus Kiwanis Club and the Rotary, for instance, reached out to the business community. With their help several businesses – including Kipnis, Mark DeLuca Realtors, EROS, and Capital One, among others – collectively donated about 175 pairs of shoes.
The Bansals estimate they have so far collected almost 700 pairs of shoes.
Soles for Souls
With the help of their friends and neighbors at Harmon Cove, the Bansals have spent hours sorting through the donations. The volunteers make sure matching shoes are either taped or laced together and bag them for shipping. Most of the donations are women’s shoes and children’s footwear. Far fewer men’s shoes have been donated.
The Bansals are now faced with the task of shipping these donations to Soles for Souls, a Tennessee-based nonprofit organization that collects shoes and distributes them to devastated areas throughout the world. The organization was founded by former shoe executive Wayne Elsey after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. That year, thousands of shoes were sent to people in Southeast Asia. A year later the organization donated shoes to Gulf Coast residents who were displaced after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
“Our biggest challenge now will be getting all these shoes shipped,” said Bansal, who said the family is currently storing the donations in their car port.
Bansal has reached out to United Parcel Service, which a has a major plant in Secaucus, to see if the shipping giant might help get the footwear to Tennessee at a discounted rate since the shoes are a charitable donation.
Because Secaucus residents were so generous with their donations, the family may donate 500 pairs to Soles for Souls, and donate the rest to local charities in Northern New Jersey.
The habit of giving
Interestingly, the Bansals said their daughter first learned to give back by donating old books to the Secaucus Public Library and Business Resource Center.
“That got her exposed to how you contribute to the community, how you take things and give it others,” said Kapil Bansal.
The shoe drive, Charu Bansal commented, “has been so successful, I’ve thought of extending to into December.” The drive is scheduled to end Monday.
Hearing this, her husband, however, laughed, saying, “No. I think we will end it. It was very successful, but a little overwhelming, too…Now that we’ve done it, maybe others can now see that it can be done. Maybe we’ll do something like this again in the future. But maybe this will be an example to others. It’s easy to give back. You just have to have a small idea and get started.”
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.