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Updated: 7:03 AM Sep 30, 2009
Shoes to Kenya Fill Unoccupied Harrisonburg Storefront
Harrisonburg, Va. A piece of art with a social benefit is being constructed in a vacant store front in downtown Harrisonburg.
Posted: 5:30 PM Sep 29, 2009Reporter: David Johnson Email Address: david.johnson@whsv.com |
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2 Comments 
A piece of art with a social benefit is being constructed in a vacant store front in downtown Harrisonburg.
Thousands of donated shoes are being collected and arranged in the front of the old Jack Collins shoe store.
The goal is to collect 22,000 pairs of shoes that will eventually be packed in crates and shipped to Kenya, where they will be sold. The money from the sale will go toward buying land for homeless Kenyan widows.
The project is being put on by an art class at Eastern Mennonite University and the school is looking for community participation.
"We were thinking about how to do socially-engaged artwork. How do we engage society, because people can now participate, and they can contribute their own shoes, and they become part of the artwork. So we are literally including our audience at participating artists in the project," says EMU art professor Cyndi Gusler.
The shoe display will be unveiled Friday at the store on South Main Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. as part of the Harrisonburg Museum and Gallery Walk.
Latest Comments
I wanted to take moment to comment on Jim's post. The shoes are going to Well of Hope, a very well run NGO in Kenya. Shoes are being used as anyone can give and it involves more folks. Some shoes are given to the neediest widows (WOHI is currently serving over 200 in the Kiserian area and in Masai land). Some are given to the widows who are taught how to open a small business. They use the sale of the shoes as seed money to start their own small businesses. The balance are being sold in bulk ($23,000 was earned on the last batch) and the proceeds used to purchase 14 acres to establish a Widows compound. Each woman will receive title to a small parcel of land (14 women per acre), where they are shown Christ's love, given education, medicine, and can emotionally support each other. It is a VERY GOOD, WELL MANAGED PROJECT. God has been very involved since the beginning and has blessed it immensely. I have been there and seen it first hand.
I used to live in Harrisonburg about 25 years ago. I visited Kenya and Tanzanzia last year for 3 months working as a teacher. I would be happy to donate a few pictures of Kenya and its people. Knowing how the people live and realizing that they have necessities, shoes is not the best option. It would only go to a very very few and then those would in turn sell to people who can afford them and the vicious cycle of corruption would continue. The Marist Brothers a Catholic organization could help anyone who wants to help the widows of Kenya.
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