Cross-Country Junior Saves Soles One Pair at a Time

09/29/2011

When UMass Lowell junior Steve Fitzsimmons went to clean out his closet earlier this summer, he was overwhelmed by the number of old running sneakers he found.

He counted 26 pair from high school and his first two years of college.

Fitzsimmons didn’t want to just throw them away. By a distance runner’s standards, they were tired, flat. But surely someone somewhere could use them.

 

So he did a search online for donating used running shoes, and found a website called www.soles4souls.org. He was moved by the videos and photos.

“There was one child who was wearing his mother’s shoes because those were the only shoes they had for the whole family,” Fitzsimmons said. “There was another photo of a child’s feet that were in women’s type sandals. The sandals were disintegrating.”

The images stuck. The biology major thought about it more and did some math. He runs 85-90 miles in a typical week. The longevity of a pair running shoes is about 500 miles, so he figures anywhere between six to eight weeks, he needs a new pair.

“And I’m just one of 20-30 athletes on the men’s (cross country) team,” he said, let alone the 20 or so on the women’s team and the remaining members of UMass Lowell’s track and field teams. Listen to Steve tell his story.

The Methuen native factored in the 11 other women’s and men’s teams at UMass Lowell. The potential was overwhelming.

            

Over the summer, Fitzsimmons brought the idea to Joan Lehoullier, UMass Lowell’s senior associate director of athletics who oversees the athletic department’s fundraising and community service efforts.

            

Usually it’s Lehoullier who is pitching the community service ideas to UMass Lowell’s athletes.

            

“I’m always excited when a student-athlete comes to us with an idea for community service,” Lehoullier said. “Things like this are important to Steve. He’s really looking at the bigger picture.”

            

Lehoullier went to the Soles4Souls website and registered the University as a drop location. Soon after, the collection boxes arrived.

            

“We would like to make this a campus-wide effort,” said Lehoullier. “We’d like to work with our marketing folks to tie it in with some promotional things we do throughout the year.”

            

And it’s not all about sneakers. Soles4Souls accepts all types from Tevas to Bostonians to Monolos.

            

At the 2011 annual River Hawk Games on Sept. 11, Lehoullier introduced the effort to UMass Lowell’s 250-plus student-athletes. Predictably, there were glowing reviews.

“A lot of kids came up to us right away and said it was a great idea,” Lehoullier said. “Once you get them started, they’re on board. They’re all looking for a way to help.”

Fitzsimmons pitched the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at their first meeting on Sept. 6. Let your teams know about this, he said.

            

On Tuesday, Sept. 13, a Soles4Souls collection box, about 3 feet tall and 18 inches wide, was placed outside the athletic offices on the bottom floor of the Costello Athletic Center where the athletes congregate before practices.

            

By Friday afternoon it was overflowing into a second box. Lehoullier and Fitzsimmons will pack them up and send them to one of the 10 Soles4Souls warehouses nationwide where they are cleaned and reconditioned.

There is also a collection box in the Campus Recreation Center, and Fitzsimmons hopes to add another on South Campus.

            

“It is something that is relatively easy and does a lot of good,” Fitzsimmons explained. “These shoes are going to people in third world countries, in crisis relief situations, people who have never owned a pair of shoes in their lives.”

         

Soles4Souls drop boxes are located at the bottom of UMass Lowell’s Costello Athletic Center and at the Campus Recreation Center. To find out more, visit www.soles4souls.org.