Shoe Drive!
I was going to tell a another referral woe story because I actually had a patient tell me that she read my last entry. But I am going to save that for next time because I am going to right about something more positive and actually none medical. We are helping an orphanage in Equador that is run by my friend Travis Gugelman. We have been asking people to donate their old shoes that are not being used or would otherwise be thrown away. We were involved in helping to sort shoes in the past but are now using the Fall Creek Skin and Health Clinic as a drop site for donations. Yesterday, my son Truman and I went over to Jackson to give out posters and let people know that the Flat Creek Inn and Mart is the drop spot over there. It was fun to go business to business over there because unlike when you are trying to sell something, everyone was receptive to helping donate something that they would otherwise probably throw away. We went to several churches including the First Baptist and Catholic churches. We also went to all the the large grocery stores like Albertsons and Smiths. As we went to different places, they often had a bulletin board that had other fliers and posters, and from board to board we would see the same posters advertizing different events over and over again, almost like the people putting up those posters were just ahead of us. We also went to the recreations center with the indoor pool and the hockey arena. It has been our plan to collect the shoes and take them down with us to Equador over Christmas. But we have had some problems getting our tickets. In the process of purchasing the tickets about 2 months ago, I realized our passports were expired, which we needed before we could purchase the tickets. So we got them renewed but that took several weeks and the cost of the tickets have gone up to a point the is not feasible for a family of 6. My wife, in an effort to do some other service oriented Christmas instead of a bunch of gifts, came up with an alternative trip until we can get to Equador at a later date. We are going to try to spend Christmas working in a soup kitchen in Chicago! I worked in a soup kitchen in Seattle while I was going to school and it was a very memorable experience. We think that doing something like this will leave a much more lasting Christmas memory that opening gifts around the tree like we usually do. We have not bought the tickets yet, so it still may not happen, but at least we have our passports. In my next blog entry I will update our progress and then tell the other sad referral story. Hope everything is going well for everyone. Have a happy Daylight Savings day next week. Bring in your shoes!!!