Tech track and field athletes Queen Harrison and Bobby Onyeukwu sort shoes at the shoe drive in Cassell Coliseum on Oct. 25.
The Virginia Tech men's and women's cross country and track and field teams were out doing their part this weekend by collecting donations in the form of none other than old, beaten-up sneakers.
The shoes, collected for the Nike Reuse a Shoe program and the Soles4Souls shoe charity, are not simply taken and redistributed in thrift stores; instead, programs such as Nike's take the material from the shoes and recycle it into sports surfaces.
The program has recycled 21 million pairs of shoes and made over 265 playing surfaces including playgrounds, tennis and basketball courts, tracks and other athletic fields.
"The whole team has been out here," said sophomore and cross-country runner Matt Saunders. "We've been coming out in shifts in order to break it up."
Soles4Souls is a little different in that it takes donated shoes and put them on the feet of people in need, around the U.S. and in many third-world countries.
"We've been doing these shoe donations for a few years now," redshirt senior cross-country runner Jessica Fanning said. "It's just a way to give back."
Standing outside on the corner of Washington and Spring Street from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this past Saturday, the teams collected two large cardboard boxes full of shoes for these charities.
The team took it upon themselves to spread word about the event.
"We made a Facebook group and basically just used word-of-mouth to get people to come out," sophomore pole-vaulter Hunter Hall said.
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Good job showcasing the good that our student athletes are capable of. :)
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