Footwear charity steps up donations

For the Juneau-based Footwear for Families project, it's been another bumper year for donated boots and shoes, helping the charity project expand throughout the state.

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"These last two years are exponentially larger than earlier years," said Max Mertz, president of Glacier Valley Rotary, one of the project's sponsors. "It has grown from nothing in 1997 to 700 (boots and shoes given away in Southeast) today."

Footwear for Families began in 1997 when Ray Vidic, a private nonprofit consultant and the project's founder, purchased 20 pairs of reduced-price Sorel boots at Kmart and donated them to Glacier Valley Baptist School. The next year he purchased 80 pairs of clearance shoes and donated them again.

"Then I started reaching out to social-service organizations," Vidic said. "The primary criteria I have is just that they can't be resold, (the boots and shoes) need to be given away."

By 1999, Vidic had enlisted the help of local Rotary chapters and Catholic Community Services. Local Rotary clubs helped to raise funds and CCS distributed the donated footwear throughout Southeast. Vidic also contacted Footstar Meldisco, Super Kmart's footwear wholesaler, and the company agreed to offer the shoes to Footwear for Families at a discounted rate.

"It was just $1,500 for all the boots," Mertz said. That is a little over $2 a pair.

This year there are a variety of boots, with sizes that range from a children's 3 to a men's 11. In Juneau, the boots will be distributed by the Glory Hole, the Healthy Families Program, the Mountain View Senior Center, and St. Vincent de Paul's.

The boots also will be distributed to Haines, Hoonah, Angoon, Wrangell, Kake and Yakutat, Mertz said. Air carriers Wings of Alaska and LAB fly the shoes to the communities for free. Local Rotary chapters paid for Alaska Airlines to deliver the donations to Yakutat and Wrangell.

Last year, Vidic contacted Southcentral Rotary chapters, social-service groups, Wells Fargo branches and Kmart stores in Anchorage, Kenai and Fairbanks. The groups agreed to participate in the boot giveaway. Wells Fargo donated the funds, while the Rotary clubs and social-service agencies helped distribute the footwear.

"The volunteers, they know they are making an impact, the social-service organizations, they are touched, the people who distribute, they are touched, and of course the people who receive (the shoes), they are touched too," Vidic said. "It is a chain of caring."

Statewide, the program distributed more than 2,000 pairs of boots and shoes this year.

"It is a fantastic program. I have a lot of clients in these communities and it really makes a impact," said Mertz, an accountant with out-of-town clients.

Vidic has been in contact with Footstar Meldisco about expanding the shoe charity program to Seattle, through city Kmarts.

"I just go one store at a time, "Vidic said.

Julia O'Malley can be reached at jomalley@juneauempire.com.