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Tennis players organize shoe collection for needy

April 17, 2013

Athletes have access to a resources most homeless people do not — shoes.

Instead of stuffing worn out shoes in the back of the closet, Detroit Soles is donating used shoes to people in need.

Detroit Soles, run by the MSU men’s tennis team, began collecting shoes in 2009 and recently became an official MSU organization. The group hosts collections about once a month on campus and accepts shoes at drop-off locations at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility, East Lansing Public Library, Hannah Community Center, East Lansing High School, the Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center and Meridian Township Hall.

Finance senior Christian Roehmer, Detroit Soles president, said the group started collecting shoes in the Greater Lansing area this academic year.

“It’s not difficult — people throw away their shoes all the time,” Roehmer said.

“(They do) not think about how those shoes can be used in other ways, (and) we have come up with a way of how to use those shoes in a good way, benefiting people in need.”

English sophomore Harry Jadun, Detroit Soles vice president, said the organization has a goal to collect 500 pairs of shoes by the end of the semester, and they have more than 430 pairs so far.

Graduate student Jason Norville, Detroit Soles founder, started donating shoes after being told about a man at the Neighborhood Service Organization’s, or NSO, Tumaini Center, in Detroit, who needed a pair of size 16 shoes.

After Norville was able to find the man shoes from MSU, he started donating shoes from his tennis team, other sports teams and the community to the center.

“Tennis can be a high-end game, often associated with ‘country club kids,’” Norville said.

“Obviously, not (everyone) who plays tennis has a lot of money, but people who play tennis have the ability to buy shoes.”

NSO’s Tumaini Center serves the homeless and takes in more than 120 people each day, said Lewis Hickson, operations manager for NSO’s Tumaini Center.

Hickson said shoes are something the people who visit the center need every so often because of overuse and seasonal change.

“If they are here very often, their shoes wear out, that’s how (shoes) operate,” Hickson said.
“That’s how they hustle, they work the streets.”

Gene Orlando, men’s tennis head coach and Detroit Soles liaison, said it takes an average of three weeks for many of the MSU tennis players to go through a pair of shoes. Orlando said MSU athletes are supplied shoes as part of the program.

Detroit Soles will have a collection from 7-8:30 p.m on April 23 in front of the Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center, and those who drop off shoes will get a slice of pizza.

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