“Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.”

                                                                                    – Marilyn Monroe

My favorite part of getting dressed in the morning has always been putting my shoes on. Long before I worked at a shoe store, and way before I experienced the joy (and pain) of breaking in a new pair of converse, I remember pure excitement at the thought of getting to pick out a brand spankin’ new pair of shoes at the beginning of every school year.

My sister and I, to our delight, would hop in the car, and our mother, probably to her despair, would drive us around for hours until we found the perfect, all black, low-heeled, lace-up, but still fashionable, comfortable AND extra narrow pairs of school shoes (private school dress code made our options limited, and two girls with skinny feet made those limited options even narrower . . . no pun intended). Maybe it was my school uniform that made me appreciate picking out my own unique, distinguishable pair of shoes, or maybe it was the entire experience. Either way, these memories are ones I look back on fondly.

All nostalgia aside this memory, paired with a large dose of caffeine, got my wheels turning Shoes are typically the last thing we put on in the morning, the last part of our routines, but the first and most important item needed when venturing out to start a productive day or drive down the street to the nearest Dunkin Donuts. Shoes are a necessity.

We often take for granted the clothes on our back, the shoes on our feet. Have you ever thought what your life would be like if you didn’t have shoes? You’d certainly be uncomfortable physically, but how would you feel mentally? What about when cold, inclement weather hits or when the ground is so scalding hot you can’t take a step barefoot? Speaking for myself, and maybe many of you, I’d feel powerless, hopeless.

The problem is, there are many people around the world, and here at home in the United States, who do not have even the most basic pair of shoes to put on their feet. What does this have to do with me, with you? Everything. Because we can help.

Soles4Souls is an organization dedicated to helping people in need to acquire not only shoes, but opportunities for better lives. Their self-proclaimed vision is to “eradicate extreme poverty by 2050”. Soles4Souls provides countless ways to give back to those in need, including monetary donations, traveling to impoverished areas to help and, of course, donating shoes! New shoes, old shoes, red shoes, blue shoes, one shoes, two shoes . . . you get the picture. No pair of shoes is useless to Soles4Souls. Even the pair of shoes that seems like it’s on its last leg (pun intended) can be re-purposed and put to good use!

Now, you know the team at Mar-Lou LOVES shoes. What we love even more than shoes is simply making people happy and comfortable. We’ve teamed up with Soles4Souls as a drop-off location for shoe donations. It’s as easy as rounding up any pair(s) of shoes you don’t wear/need and dropping them in the box on your way into the store!

Charity and donation is often associated with the holiday season, but I challenge all of us to make giving back part of every season. Remember: before you toss those old shoes, take some time to drive up to Mar-Lou and drop them in our shoe-donation box. All it takes is one pair of shoes to make life easier for a woman walking to work every day, or to spark joy in a little girl on her first day of school. Every shoe helps, no matter how big or small.

~Allison

Web/Social Media Administrator

Mar-Lou Shoes

Want to learn more? Check out this awesome video from Soles4Souls to find out “the power of a pair of shoes”!

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