My name is Sam, and I have been a part of the Grades of Green Youth Corps Eco-Leadership program since 2011. For the past two years, I have been working on Grades of Green’s Leftover School Supplies Activity in a unique way. I am collecting used shoes to be donated to a organization called Soles for Souls, which gives the shoes to people in need all around the world. I had a great shoe collection in February. It started by collecting shoes at some of the local preschools and elementary schools here in Manhattan Beach. Grades of Green and I also partnered with Earth Friendly Products to collect shoes. Then I brought the project to my high school, Notre Dame in Los Angeles, as we collected shoes with our basketball team at our games. We even partnered with the Loyola basketball team and each collected shoes at our games. Then when we played against each other and we each brought a pair of shoes to the middle to donate. It was very cool. We continued to collect them at school and with the help of the Notre Dame mother’s guild, we received many more shoes. Finally we finished our collection with the American Martyrs 5k. We collected at the race and at all the masses that weekend. All in all we added almost 3,000 shoes to the donation. I am working to reach the goal of collecting 25,000 shoes by the end of this school year, all with the aim of wearing out poverty.