Local Student on Quest to Collect Thousands of Shoes

It's estimated that 300 million children worldwide have never had shoes. Lexi Klinghagen, a 17-year-old from Mauldin, wants to do her part to correct that.

The teen, a senior at Brashier Middle College, a charter school in Simpsonville, is on a quest to collect 5,000 pair of shoes to donate to Soles4Souls, a Nashville-based charity, as well as $5,000 to pay shipping costs.

Asked recently if she thought that was possible, Klinghagen told the Greenville News: “Humanly possible, no,” she remembered saying. “God possible, yes.”

Klinghagen has collected more than 145 pairs so far. The effort is part of Klinghagen's senior project at her school.

"With the help of a young-adult group at her church, Klinghagen has set up collection tubs at seven Greenville County stores and begun distributing fliers. She said she collected her first 145 pairs at vacation Bible school," the paper reported.

Klinghagen told the paper she has been researching ways of fundraising and marketing. She is planning a family-friendly event with games in March to help spread the word about what she is doing, and why it is so important that people have shoes — a basic but vital item that Americans take for granted.
“It’s on a big ol’ drawing board, and I’m putting the pieces together,” she told the paper.

Collection bins have been set up at Fancy Details on East Butler Road in Mauldin; Food Lion on West Georgia Road in Simpsonville; BI-LO on North Main Street in Fountain Inn; GB Shoes on South Pleasantburg Drive in Greenville; A Child Again on Wade Hampton Boulevard in Taylors; Sunrift Adventures on U.S. 276 in Travelers Rest; and Food Lion on West Wade Hampton Boulevard in Greer.

Klinghagen can be reached at lexiaklinghagen074@gmail.com.

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