Many sneakers find their way to Churchville collection

Many sneakers find their way to Churchville collection

A used sneaker collection, held in September by the Union Congregational United Church of Christ in Churchville, had some great results and some unexpected ones, too, organizers said. Cheryl Valvano co-chaired the community service project that collected old sneakers for recycling. Church members placed collection bins in several locations including the Town of Riga, Churchville village offices and the Newman Riga Library. "It went really, really, well," Valvano said. "The bins were filled several times. We had to clean out the one in the library four time and the one in the town hall three times. We even found shoes left on the church steps and hung on the doorknob of the minister's office. A man was even waiting for us in the parking lot after church with sneakers."

The sneakers were sorted by church members and taken to the Monroe County recycling facility. They were then collected by Nike and turned into material to make sports surfaces. "The kids helped on Sunday," Valvano said, "they sorted through the sneakers and bagged them up. It was very nice because the kids felt like they had done something."

Valvano said that during the collection, she got a call from a woman who had just been on a mission trip to Africa. "She said there were lots of boys there with big feet and she asked if we had big size sneakers that could be sent to an orphanage in Namibia."

Large-size sneakers in good condition were set aside for that purpose. "We also found brand new sneakers, some still in boxes. Anything that was new was donated to Matthew's Closet in Rochester to help the needy."

The sneaker collection will continue. "I got a call from Marty Molinari who heads up the Leo Club which is sponsored by the Churchville Lions Club. He said the Leo Club had wanted to do a sneaker collection project and wondered if they could continue the collection after September. We gave them our bins and they have put them in the (Churchville-Chili) schools," she said.

Church members will continue with other community service projects. They work on a section of the community garden in the Village Commons. "We plan to plant bulbs now that will come up in the spring," Valvano said.