Granger Paths teams up with two Notre Dame students for tennis shoe drive
by Bret Yoder, board member
On May 18th, 2008 you may have donated a pair of tennis shoes at Granger Paths 3rd Annual 5k Run/Walk. First, thank you to those that did. Now you may be wondering what is going to happen with these shoes. With the overwhelming efforts of two University of Notre Dame graduates, Jennifer Korzan and Nicole Crippen, their community project was collecting tennis shoes for an organization call Hope Runs, www.hoperuns.org which is a non-profit NGO working in Kenya and Tanzania, using athletics, education, and social entrepreneurship to empower AIDS orphans.
Race Director Andy McGrail said “I saw an article about the cause and contacted Jennifer to see if we could help.”Jennifer said she got the idea from a running magazine. And this leads to many drives collecting tennis shoes from various groups at the University of Notre Dame, the community and of course Granger Paths. Now here comes the kicker! They collected somewhere in the area of 1,000 pairs of tennis shoes. WOW!
But this story continues. Jennifer, a Granger resident, has traveled to Tanzania
Jennifer Korzan at Granger Paths 5k Run/Walk
– Hananasif - Shamba Center where she will be working with 40 orphans http://hoperuns.org/tanz_shamba.php for the summer. Along with her luggage, she has 2 huge duffle bags of shoes (approximately 100 pair) going with her.
So what about the other 900 pairs of shoes? Jennifer asked Andy if he knew of anyone that could help ship the shoes. Andy, who is also a member of the South Bend Transportation Club, Inc., www.sbtrans.org contacted President Bret Yoder (who is also a member of Granger Paths). The rest of the shoes were picked up from her garage, crated and shipped to an organization called Soles4Souls, Inc. www.giveshoes.org in Roanoke, AL. Soles4Souls facilitates the donations of shoes, which are used to aid the hurting worldwide.
Granger Paths would like to thank Jennifer for the opportunity to work with her and the hard work and service she has done! Jennifer will remand in our thoughts and prayers while in Tanzania.
On May 18th, 2008 you may have donated a pair of tennis shoes at Granger Paths 3rd Annual 5k Run/Walk. First, thank you to those that did. Now you may be wondering what is going to happen with these shoes. With the overwhelming efforts of two University of Notre Dame graduates, Jennifer Korzan and Nicole Crippen, their community project was collecting tennis shoes for an organization call Hope Runs,