SAN ANTONIO – Shoes and socks collected from November to December were delivered to police headquarters on Friday, December 16th. Shoes were sorted by size and then bagged for Zapatos volunteers to prepare for distribution.
This year RBFCU-San Antonio area branches also served as additional drop off points. The added community donations brought the total for Share the Shoes to 1,855 pairs shoes; a total that surpasses the 1,620 pairs of shoes in 2021.
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“Zapatos will be starting off 2023 very strong,” said Margie Delatorre, Zapatos volunteer.
Socks were a new ask for this year’s Share the Shoes initiative. When gifting children with new shoes, volunteers began to notice that aside from battered shoes, many children also had very worn socks.
Members of Zapatos posted on Facebook they received more than 1200 pairs of socks from the community, " Today’s sock count was 1,298 and that was only from one box, we have 5 more boxes to count.”
Zapatos Inc continues to update their social media followers about the community donations received from this year’s Share the Shoes campaign. The final count of socks was made on December 28th, Zapatos Inc said they received more than 5700 pairs of socks.
The shoe drive may be over but more donations from the community were delivered to police headquarters after sorting day, “Friday was amazing, we have a lot more shoes coming in,” said Amanda Balderas, SAPD Community Services Supervisor.
During the holiday break, Zapatos will continue to fill shoe orders as they prepare for their next distribution at a local school in January.
Zapatos is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2015 by Maria Gloria Martinez. Over 300 students were served in 2016 and 703 in 2017. Zapatos strives to help society’s less fortunate families by providing new shoes. ‘Shoes are foundational; Shoes are Fundamental’.
KSAT Community operates in partnership with University Health, Energy Transfer and Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union. Click here to read about other KSAT Community efforts.