SRLA Collects Over 18,000 Shoes!
On Saturday, August 9th, SRLA collected and counted 18,302 shoes, which appears to break a Guinness World Record for "Most Shoes Collected for Recycling." SRLA spoke with Harry Shabazian, co-founder of SRLA and the man who came up with the idea!
Q: Tell us about the Guinness World Record that SRLA is trying to set?
A: The old record, which was set by National Geographic Kids based in Washington DC in 2013, was 16,407 individual shoes collected at one time for recycling. SRLA set a new mark of 18,302 individual shoes collected for recycling. (Record is not officially broken until authenticated by Guinness World Record).
Q: How did the idea for this record come about?
A: I was browsing through the Internet and I came across an article about what the kids from National Geographic had done. The impression that I got was that they collected shoes primarily through the mail because they reached out to celebrities. Our approach was much more grass-roots and was much more involved because our students participated in physically gathering the shoes. After I read the article, it was a no-brainer because doing these little events adds more layers to the experience of our students being involved with SRLA. A criticial component is character deveopment and events like this allow for that to take place.
Q: What were some of the ways in which the shoes were collected?
A: Groups went out and spread the word amongst their given sites. They had shoe drives and encouraged classrooms to collect shoes. At the end of the year, many of the shcools did locker room cleanouts and shoes were collected. Runners were also encouraged to look at what they had at home and also spread the word in their communities. Many of the local running stores were also involved with spreading the word to their customers, and they collected over 300 pairs. A few of our Leaders put together makeshift boxes with flyers and gave them to friends who owned local businesses to put out.
Q: What was your biggest challenge?
Transportation of the shoes was definitely the biggest challenge. It took a fairly lengthy period of time (8 months) and a lot of logistics to get all the shoes to Belvedere Middle School. I literally transported most of them myself with my little station wagon. I'd transport 200 pairs at a time and I probably made 45-50 trips with my car filled to the brim each time.
A. How do you top this success?
From what I saw, everyone who was involved was really stoked about what took place. When I have a goal I know what I'm capable of doing. I had that level of confidence that we could pull it off. It wasn't a difficutl thing to do, but very time consuming. Given that I'm retired, time was on my side.
I saw the level of excitement at the event and it kept growing and growing. When we pulled off the stunt, everyone was really pleased with the end result. Everyone was saying "What do we do next?" We will likely see a bit of a spike in our SRLA Cares projects that we do. Many of the groups are creating their own dynamic and energy and it's infectious, and groups that are not participating will be more apt to jump on board.
Q: What does SRLA Cares have planned?
SRLA Cares is the facet of our program that each year encompasses a set of events that allow for greater development of awareness amongst our runners. The awareness is primarily social and environmental needs in which our students can make a positive contribution.
We're planning to do the same projects as last year. We'll collect pennies for an organization for kids with celebral palsy. Our canned food drive used to focus on tuna, but this year we'll focus on all canned food. We'll still do clothing drive, toy drive, and recycling stunt, where proceeds will be used for a senior run at the end of the year. The full list of projects is on our website at www.srla.org/srlacares
Q: What is your hope for how SRLA can channel this energy?
A: Our students are remarkable. I hope that they'll channel this energy to make changes within their own communities.
