GOOD DEED CHANGES PHILANTHROPIST’S LIFE

Share Your Soles is a 22-year-old non-profit organization that has distributed 5 million shoes to 40 locations around the world. Photos provided by Mona Purdy
Share Your Soles is a 22-year-old non-profit organization that has distributed 5 million shoes to 40 locations around the world. Photos provided by Mona Purdy

 Good deed changes philanthropist’s life

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     Mona Purdy says going to Guatemala and competing in a half marathon changed her life.
      The founder and president of Share Your Soles, an organization which provides shoes to people around the world,
said she started the organization because she was trying to teach her three children how it feels to do something good in private.
    Purdy was helping a group of cyclists from Guatemala and wanted to mail them some supplies. She found it was cheaper for her to get an airplane ticket and fly with the supplies, so she did that. While there, she was in a village in the rainforest where there was a half marathon happening.
     “I’m used to running in America, where we run with shoes on the street. This is in the rainforest on rocky terrain, and I was the only woman, only Caucasian, and the only one with shoes on,” she said, adding that it was challenging because the half marathon took place at high noon in the sweltering heat.
    During the half marathon, Purdy said she saw children on the side of the road, that put hot tar on the soles of their bare feet because they didn’t have shoes to wear.
    “It’s really hard to run in the heat when you’re crying,” she said. She added, at the time, she was going through a divorce, but
she still saw the need these children had, and wanted to do something about it. This prompted her to start collecting shoes. On
the trip back, Purdy encountered a nun at the orphanage where she was donating the shoes she had collected. “When she
said, ‘when are you coming back?’ out of respect, I was like, coming back, no, I’ve done my good thing, this was a one time
thing. But, I couldn’t say that to her, it was like, I’ll be back, bye,” she said.
    Purdy said when she returned home, shoes had piled up at her house. It was then, in 1999, Share Your Soles was born.
    She said Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, helped with starting Share Your Soles. He sat on the board of Share Your
Soles.
     Twenty-two years later, Purdy still collects and distributes the shoes to places which include Haiti, countries in Africa, Central America, South America, Southeast Asia and to Indigenous Peoples Reservations in America. “I keep doing it because the need has gotten greater. And, I thought it was for people that received the shoes and the last 18 years, I realized it’s people in America who benefit from knowing their efforts benefit someone
they will never know, meet or see, in a land far away from America where people live on, sometimes less than $2 a day,” she said.
    Purdy said she has hand delivered 5 million pairs of shoes, but she collected more than that. She said she didn’t deliver some of the shoes because of the quality of the shoes. She said half of what they collect, they don’t deliver. “I’m trying to teach Americans when you’re sharing, make sure what you share is intact. We
don’t recycle, refurbish or repair. The way we get shoes, it goes to people, people that in some cases, have never owned their own pair of shoes, so the quality must be up to par,” she said.
    Purdy said not only does she accept shoes, she also accepts monetary donations. Those monetary donations go toward shipping the shoes. Share Your Soles sends shoes to 40 locations around the world. In addition to the shoes, the corrugated boxes they are shipped in can be used for storage or for other useful purposes, including roofing.
     Purdy said Africa is her baby. She built a library and named it after her adopted mother there -- The Elsa Bandi Reading and Literacy Center – in a refugee camp. She said her favorite places
are Uganda, Haiti, Cameroon, Kenya and Ghana.
     Share Your Soles is located at 11201 S. Cottage Grove. Purdy said it is a great location where people can come as a family,
bond and do something good for someone else. She said the Divine Nine and people from the South Side have donated and
volunteered their time, and for that, she is grateful. The location had been closed since March 2020 due to COVID-19, but reopened in April. The organization is now accepting donations.
    For more information, visit shareyoursoles.
org.

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