Any month where there is a 5th Sunday, Crosspointe cancels regular services and does something practical in the community. (Which is where I learned I was a terrible person.)Being a bit of a germaphobe (John, stop smirking) I balked at having to pull flip flops that looked like they'd been through every disgusting path of land from here to El Paso out of a bin of other things that had been on people's feet and putting them together. To match them, I had to touch tennis shoes that smelled dreadful. (I thought terrible thoughts about the person who donated those shoes.) And worse, very few shoes were tied together, so it was bin after metal bin of playing the memory game. (To be fair, there were many, many shoes that looked like they had hardly been worn, and I suspect that the thrift store in only interested in those.)
After that experience, I've learned a few things I wish to share that quite frankly never occurred to me before this event:
1) Don't donate shoes that are gross. (Flip flop girl, I SINCERELY hope you are reading this.) These shoes aren't being recycled, they are being donated to people. I don't care how poor you are, no one wants to put filthy shoes on their feet.
2) Fasten the shoes you donate in pairs. You can rubber band, tie shoetrings together, or use one of those plastic hoohas designed to keep cables together. The hours our team spent matching shoes could have been spent stocking shelves or sorting clothes into sizes.
3) You probably have stuff in your closet collecting dust that someone could be using right now. I went home and got rid of all the shoes that I didn't love. Those that fit "okay" but not great. The heels I kept to go with a single outfit that only got worn once a year. The reality is they had dust on them from lack of use.
If you live in the North Dallas area and want to be part of one of Crosspointe's 5th Sunday events the next one is this Sunday, January 29th at Theatre 166. We are making sandwiches to stock The Soup Mobile. Just show up with a package of cheese and lunch meat at the venue at 10:30 AM. For details check the Facebook event page
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I still feel bad about donating one of the Big Guy's pair shoes that was in less than stellar shape. We had dropped some clothes off at a local shelter. They really needed the size The Big Guy wears. The worker said if we ever had any wearable shoes in his size (15) to please let him know. As we were leaving a gentleman came in desperate need of shoes. He was going to settle for a pair at least 2 sizes too small. The Big Guy went to the car and got his pair from his gym bag. It was humbling to see how grateful the man was for those shoes.
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