'Our goal is 25,000 pairs:' Stan's Fit For Your Feet wants your new, gently-used shoes

Stan's Fit for Your Feet

BROOKFIELD -- It’s an annual charity drive with plenty of sole.

“This is our 12th annual Share-A-Pair shoe drive, and we’re celebrating all month," said Megan Sajdak, Stan's Fit for Your Feet marketing director.

Throughout February, you can drop off new or gently-used shoes and new socks at the three Stan’s locations around the area, plus two New Balance stores.

“We’re looking for men’s, women’s and kids’ shoes," Sajdak said. "Work shoes, work boots, sandals, slippers, snow boots. You name it, we’ll take it.”

Megan Sheehan

“We have a little phrase in our house, ‘do what you can with what you have,'" said Megan Sheehan, a mother of three who dropped off two bags of shoes on Monday, Feb. 5. "We’re trying to start implementing that in our family with our young children.”

The Share-A-Pair donations will go to three non-profits around Milwaukee -- Repairers of the Breach, Father Gene's HELP Center and the Milwaukee Rescue Mission – plus the national Soles4Souls organization. Some of those shoes will get to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and Houston.

“Our goal this year is to collect 25,000 pairs of shoes this February," Sajdak said. "We’ve collected, to date, 235,000 pairs of shoes, which is amazing.”

“That warms our hearts to know that we can, maybe, share a little bit with somebody," Sheehan added.  

It’s a way to pay it forward one step at a time, by allowing someone else to walk a mile in your shoes.