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HERRIMAN — In just two weeks, students at Herriman Elementary School collected more than 2,700 pairs of shoes for the people of Laye, Burkina Faso — far surpassing their original goal of 1,000 pairs.
“Honestly, I would have never expected them to collect this many,” said Miss Riverton Amber Barron, who first proposed the shoe drive.
Like all Miss Utah contestants, Barron has been asked to collect 1,000 pairs of shoes for the Miss Utah Shoes for Africa project facilitated by the nonprofit organization Power 2 Become. With a little help from her 6-year-old sister and acting “Little Miss,” Afton, Barron enlisted the help of the Herriman Hawks.
The Hawk Leadership Team, Herriman’s student council equivalent, took up Barron’s challenge enthusiastically. Student representatives quickly took responsibility for the majority of project tasks, including developing collection strategies and picking up each classroom’s daily donations.
“It’s been so neat to see how they’ve taken ownership and connected with this project,” said leadership team adviser Shauna Worthington. “They really feel they’re making a difference in the world.”
In hopes of ensuring participation, student leaders framed the shoe drive as a competition between classes. The school recognized winning classes at an assembly on Monday. Although no prizes were awarded, leaders said winners were more than compensated.
“You just get that joy inside knowing that you’re helping out,” said sixth-grader Reagan Hopkins.
Student reactions to the project were overwhelmingly positive. Many shared their feelings and experiences at Monday’s assembly, which also featured “thank you” addresses from Miss and Little Miss Riverton.
Reagan said her favorite part of the experience was the opportunity to gather and count the shoes collected by younger classes.
It's been so neat to see how they've taken ownership and connected with this project. They really feel they're making a difference in the world.
–Shauna Worthington, leadership advisor
“It was really cool to see how many shoes the little kids brought and what it meant to them,” she said.
“They were so excited to see us every day,” added Nicole Rigby, also a sixth-grader. “Their faces just lit up. It was really adorable.”
Children donated all sorts of shoes — old and new, sandals and boots. Many donated their own shoes, and many more donated their grandmothers’. All told, the 800 students of Herriman Elementary collected 2,716 pairs of shoes.
“We just hope that Miss Riverton has a nice big garage to hold all these shoes,” Worthington joked at the assembly.
In fact, the shoes will be transferred to a storage unit until May 2, when they will be shipped to Burkina Faso with the collected shoes of 47 other Miss Utah contestants. Shoes not needed by the receiving village will be sold in neighboring African countries to fund the construction of wells in Burkina Faso.
Barron said she hopes their involvement in this service project will help Herriman students create sustainable changes in the future.
“Now that they’ve done it once, they can connect it with other ideas they have to make large scale change,” she said.
