Cork mum seeks hundreds of old black school shoes

CORK mum of six Lenore Good has made an appeal for black shoes for hundreds of orphans in Tanzania.

Lenore will climb Kilimanaro early next year in aid of three Cork charities —the Irish Guide Dogs, Shine Centre for Autism and Sonas Junior School. Lenore and three others are close to raising their €35k target for the three worthy causes.

During her trip she will be staying beside a school/ orphanage, which caters for up to 400 boys and girls, from preschool to second year.

She began collecting shoes and other items for the pupils only last month and has been overwhelmed by donations. 

She said: "I have 189 pairs in my possession now to be packed up, only 211 more pairs to go.⁣ ⁣ We will definitely pull this off lads! ⁣ ⁣ Those children will get the surprise of their life. ⁣ ⁣ Thank you to everyone who has reached out and donated, you have just done an enormous thing for a child in an orphanage/school who never owned a pair of new shoes before in their lives.⁣"

She has also collected more than 500 sharpeners, more than 800 pencils, erasers, footballs, and a pump.

Lenore explained: "They told me there are 400 boys and girls from preschool to 2nd year in age. They would love used black school shoes, pencils, sharpeners and footballs and skipping ropes for fun. This is who I am collecting for. I hope to hand deliver the items and capture them receiving all the donations and show you all how much of a difference you have made."

"They have asked for used black school shoes, people have been picking up reduced pairs across shops at the moment who dont have shoes to donate in good condition, black colour only please as its part of their uniform for  The kids are age 3 right up to 15 years old so sizes from UK 9 junior up to UK7 would be great for both boys and girls."

"A gentleman in the Cork area has very kindly agreed to charge me cost price to ship it over."

Lenore also asked people if they had any travel game too, that the kids might like.

"If you maybe have any travel size games of Connect 4, snakes and ladders, small jenga, cards etc something that is neat and compact that I could pack myself keep me in mind. 

"I think classes could share these games in groups, keep in mind English is their second language so the games would need to be fun and straight forward for them to understand."

She thanked Lisa of Kool Kidz Korner in Carrigaline, as people have been dropping off stuff there.

Lenore has put January as a cut off date for collection of the items.

She added: "If you can keep in mind plastic bags are banned in Tanzania so if you are sending anything to me direct, it would be a massive help if you could remove any plastic packaging its just one less thing for me to do."

For more information see her on Facebook and Instagram on ‘Out in the Sticks with Six.

For more on the fundraiser see www.ifundraise.ie/20KforKilimanJ