The United Way of Eastern Utah is currently hosting their annual Shoe Drive for their Soles 2 Souls Shoe Program for the entire month of July. This is a remarkable program that the organization developed to assist students with new shoes for school. Executive Director, Pam Boyd was able to stop by Castle Country Radio to share all the details with the community.
The organization is excited to be hosting a Pop-up Shoe Shop on August 13 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Price City Peace Garden. “We are reaching out to the community right now, and we’re having a shoe drive during July. Our collection boxes are located at Zion’s Bank in Huntington and Price, at Wells Fargo in Price, and at Washington Federal in Price, as well as at the United Way Offices at Price City Hall. You know what, if you can afford it, if you can just spare a pair of kids shoes, if you’re up state or in town and you just see them on a rack – doesn’t matter size, just a pair of kids shoes. If you can do that to help us help our neighbors, we would really appreciate it. So we’re asking the community kind of help me out with that,” explained Boyd. United Way is asking that the sizes of brand-new shoes be from toddler 4 to mens/womens size 10. The donation boxes will be made available until August 1, any donations made after can be taken to the United Way Office.
With the rising costs of fuel and groceries, there are many families that are struggling to provide for their children’s needs this school year. “You know by the time you bought a couple pairs of jeans, and a couple of tops, and then with a school supplies list, and a backpack, you know it really adds up. So we would like to help families that are facing those challenges right now, we’ll give you these shoes. We really want kids to start school with their feet on the ground in good sturdy shoes,” said Boyd. With help from the community this year the organization hopes to serve those that are in need.
United Way would like individuals to mark their calendars for the upcoming Day of Caring that is scheduled to take place on Saturday, September 10. Although it’s only July the organization is still busily preparing for the event. “We’re just looking for projects for people to send out our core of volunteers and we have a big one. We have a core of volunteers with numbers in the hundreds. We present these projects, people sign up for them, and they go out and get them done on our Day of Caring. This year its going to be on Saturday, September 10 but over the next month and a half I’d love to hear from people about what they think needs to be done,” stated Boyd. The Day of Caring event is one of the largest single-day of volunteerism in Carbon County and projects include cleaning up yards or lots, garbage pickup on trails, painting at the parks and many more.
To learn more about the United Way of Eastern Utah’s programs visit their website at https://www.uweu.org/ or you can call the office at (435) 637-8911.