Warehouse Times 10/8 and 10/9 AND... TODD

Warehouse times this weekend:

10/7/11 - Friday 6-8pm

10/8/11 - Saturday 2-5pm

10/9/11 - Sunday 2-5pm

Bring your water bottle over and come on out. We have piles of shoes to pack and get on the pallet!

I wanted to post some pictures of Todd from my trip to Africa.

Todd is an attorney for Soles4Souls (S4S) and was really very helpful to me on this trip in many ways. He has children of his own and is very smart. He reminded me of my own brother who is also an attorney.

Todd took the time with me on our evening in Dar Es Salam to explain the micro-business process to me and explained why exactly old shoes work. If he does go on another trip I'd like to tag along with him and talk with some of the people that S4S partner's with. It is a really great concept that I fully believe in. Most importantly, I am glad that he took the time to talk with me. He also was guidance in the fire that if the need to evacuate rose where to go. Todd is a smart person with a very big heart. I love that he wanted to play bubbles with the kids at one of the orphanages we visited.

So thanks again Todd for the conversations and compassion. I sincerely and graciously appreciate all that you do.

Hope to see some faces new and old at the warehouse this weekend.

Hugs

Rachel

Moving Right Along

Please take a minute to check it out. I love this song and it's keeping me going today.

http://youtu.be/MMR5JVo21wQ

It's been a crazy week. While trying to hide the bread and microwave plate cover from the 120lb lab taking them to nibble on.... I hid them in the stove. Forgot that I put those things in the stove and went to bake some cookies. Upon turning the oven on to preheat the microwave plate cover caught on fire. 5 fire trucks later I felt like a real fool. No nobody was hurt, yes the oven still works and I ordered new racks for it today.

I then left my keys on the back of my husbands car and he drove off with them to get pizza on Friday night. Found those a mile down the road smashed to pieces.

Lastly, someone tried to break into the warehouse and vandalize it. They were NOT successfull and well that's 3 bad things in a row... now it's over.

Needless to say things have been busy. I still LOVE doing the shoe drive. I have met so many wonderful people that want to do something good. This far outweighs those hurdles I've passed in the last week.

I'm busy running around trying to keep up with all the shoes coming in and still delivering boxes to schools that want to participate in the drive. I am forever appreciative to everyone for making the process happen. It's an amazing journey and I still LOVE being a part of it.

Hugs
Rachel

Warehouse Times for the Weekend

Friday 9/30 6pm until 8pm
Saturday 10/1 2pm to 5pm
Sunday 10/2 4 to 6pm

It's the opening of soccer games this weekend and I want to be there to cheer the kids on. If you can make it out that would be great. Bring a water bottle and come on out for some good times and doing something good.

Check back Monday for an updated count of how many shoes we have collected.

Hugs,
Rachel

Check out that shoe!!!!

Is that not cool!!!

Way to go NORTHFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!!!!

Even a child can make a difference!

And they are SOOOO excited about the collection.

KUDOOS to KATHY BISHOP for heading this up. YOU ROCK KATHY!

Warehouse Location & Times

For those checking my blog.... just want to let you know the location of the warehouse.

9385 Washington Blvd
Laurel, Md 20723

I'll be there this weekend at the following times.

Friday: 6:30 pm to ???
Saturday: 2pm to ???? (most likely 5pm or 6pm)
Sunday: 2pm to 5pm

If you want to come down and help out... would love to have your support. If you can't make it... say a prayer for me. I do have a cd/radio player with a hanger for an antenna, we listen to tunes and have a good time while doing good work for a great cause.

Bring your water bottle and come on over.

Otherwise... I'm looking for more pictures to post here next week. If you are collecting and want to send me your pictures from your shoe drive... I'd love to have them.

Lastly, to those waiting to hear from me.... I'm super busy and trying to coordinate pick-ups and establishing people doing their current drive/collections. Please know the squeaky wheel gets greased first and I'm a human being.... not a human doing. 24 hours in a day for a reason.... constant reminders I give myself. You may have to call me or e-mail me a second time, but I sincerely and graciously appreciate ALL the wonderful work from our community!

We are making the world a better place one pair of shoes at a time.
Hugs,
Rachel

Who Is My Littlest Helper?

Who is my littlest helper yet?

Who is that helping me lift boxes out to get ready for shoes?

I always say... lotta hands... little work! And here even the littlest hand are helping.

As a parent I feel compelled to explain to our children that WE have a GOOD life here in America. That others in the world do not have something as simple as shoes to cover their feet.

What I love is when other parents share that same responsibility in educating their children. It is truly in sharing what we have learned and experienced that we benefit.

I think of Mufia often and sharing all the kids stories that I met on my trip to Africa with Soles4Souls. They can't come here, but I was fortunate enough to be able to go there and bring home their stories to others here.

Now... Who is my littlest helper? Ben of course!!!

Ben I know you'll love this post. But I must mention that Ben was one of the few men on our trip in the crazy old man's hat that I came to love seeing each and every day.

Here's a picture of Ben carrying shoes. See his Archie Bunker style hat. I loved seeing that every day!

Sofie their dog even gets into the action.

Ben, thanks for your smiles, your laughter and your smiles. Most importantly thanks for being my youngest helper yet! You ARE an AWESOME friend, neighbor, and buddy of mine!

YOU ROCK!!!

Hugs,

Rachel

Yep... That's Wayne Elsey

Ok.... so I'm finally getting a few minutes to update and post some of what's been happening. F I N A L L Y.... I'm TAKING the time because it's important to me.

Wayne is the Founder and CEO of Soles4Souls and I had the great opportunity to meet with him briefly on his way home recently from a speaking engagement.

At first I was a little floored that someone who had a vision for others to not be shoeless wanted to meet me. Then I realized I'm just like him. We want to see things happen and see people get off of the couch and do something. Not just talk about it. It takes courage, faith and willingness to take a risk and do something that hasn't been done before. Those are the traits that I see in both of us. Being willing to take a chance and if it fails well then at least we tried. If it succeeds than what a wonderful thing to make the lives of others better.

At his suggestion I called Mrs. Busch, Wayne's 10th grade english teacher who he writes about in his book, Almost Isn't Good Enough. It had been raining non-stop for days. Streets were flooding out right and left, schools were having a hard time starting due to electrical outages and well I think I was just feeling a little down so I decided to give her a call. What a great woman. So full of energy and spunk. I loved having the conversation with her and hope to go meet her one day soon.

This is me and Sean Lewis. Sean is the Faith Engagement Manager at the Soles4Souls Headquarter office in Tennessee. In other words, he works with a lot of churches and religious organizations that want to get involved with Soles4Souls.

Which brings me to another important topic. One of the questions I continually get asked in doing my shoe drive is "what church or religious organization are you with?". Soles4Souls has NO religious affiliation which is one of the reasons why I like them. I'm not against religion I simply try to keep things simple. Being shoeless doesn't care about your color, race, religion or beliefs. It's a lot like hunger, aids and cancer. When you don't have shoes on your feet, you don't have shoes on your feet. The other thing that comes to mind is that out of the group that went to Africa, we were all people that wanted to do something for the good of all people. Imagine me with 20 other people and not really knowing anyone else. After our first 12.5hr flight and definately by the end of the trip it was sad to say goodbye to some of the great people I got to spend 10 days with.

On that note, I'm going to go collect some more filled boxes and take them to the warehouse.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Hugs

Rachel