NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. – The New Hartford Rotary Club has been collecting shoes since January, to help raise money for small businesses in developing countries.
The club has collected more than 4,000 pairs of shoes to send to Funds2Orgs, an organization in Florida that collects lightly worn shoes to send to start-up businesses in countries like Ghana and Haiti.
Funds2Orgs pays fundraising groups 40 cents for each pair of shoes collected, and then sends the shoes to entrepreneurs in developing countries to sell in their communities.
"Really there's people that don’t have shoes in some of these locations where the shoes are going. It also helps…them with their economy because it is bringing business opportunities to small businesses,” said Ed Gallacher, president of the New Hartford Rotary Club.
Shoes were collected at various drop-off locations in Clayville, New York Mills, Sauquoit and Utica.
