One Thread Nonprofit Organization collaborated with WhereAreYou? Homeless Outreach for a shoe drive last week. Casual shoes were donated by campus’ students  and then the shoes were given to community members this week.

“WhereAreYou? Homeless Outreach actually reached out to us first, sliding in our DM’s asking if we have any shoes to donate,” One Thread founder Ayda Sow said via text. “Personally, I had shoes that we could give however, the board and I thought it would be fun to host a big Shoe Drive as a community. In addition, since One Thread is all about repurposing clothes and fabric we no longer use, we figured that this would also be a great way to deviate the shoes from reaching our environment!”

Senior Lily Ziemkiewicz donated over 65 pairs of shoes after hearing the opportunity from campus’ National Honor Society chapter.

“I have donated shoes and clothes before because it is something you can easily do to help others,” Ziemkiewicz said via text. “I was motivated to donate because I thought it would be a great opportunity to be able to help my community. My mom has always been really big on ‘If you don’t have a need for that piece of clothing or shoes someone else will.’”

WhereAreYou? Homeless Outreach works to help provide for those in the Dallas area who are economically challenged. The shoe drive was one of their monthly events; One Thread was able to not only participate in donating but also bring awareness to the positive impact of donating.

“I love the idea of protecting our environment by putting used goods to good use,” junior Stephanie Chung said. “If the shoes that we don’t need anymore can be donated to people who need them the most, it would not only create happiness but also foster a close connection in our community.”

A total of 300 pairs of shoes were collected by the end of the drive and One Thread continues to seek out opportunities to give back to the community.

“In the future, we are definitely excited to do more collaborations with other organizations,” Sow said via text. “Actually, in the past few months, One Thread has achieved so much and has been able to partner with other organizations and give back to various schools. Although currently, we have not yet established any concrete plans for future partnerships, we are 100% open to the idea! So, if anyone would like to work with us or knows anyone who does, reach out to us!”