Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
-Bishop Desmond Tutu
Hello, we are ShoeCyclists.
We collect gently-used shoes and donate them to the homeless and the needy individuals and families in our community.
-Sarvesh, Satyak, Himanshu and Arul
Our Story
In 2014, as part of a school project, we learned that 300 million pairs of shoes found their way in American landfills. That’s almost a pair per person in the US and yet, there are many who cannot afford even a single pair in our own country. We collected almost 450 pairs of shoes for program Nike-Grind and were shocked to see that people gave us $80-$100 pairs of shoes that were in great condition!
Instead of recycling them via Nike Grind, we took 186 pairs to St. James park in San Jose and we were shocked that within 20 minutes, all the pairs were gone. So many people came to us and told us to come back with week after…
We realized that homeless individuals are literally living on the periphery of the society, forgotten and harshly judged by the rest of the population. Turns out that many homeless individuals were part of normal fabric of society, but circumstances (loss of job, medical expenses, mental illness) forced them to come on the street.
We realized that Silicon Valley that gave the world the computer, email, iMac, Google, iPhone, Facebook, Tesla, LinkedIn and Uber is unable to perform the same tech miracles to provide its own community members with basic necessities of life.
We realized that Silicon Valley – home to world’s greatest minds, luxurious mansions and richest companies is also home to hunger and homelessness…
We realized that we cannot solve this problem, but we will try our utmost to fulfill a basic need.
In conversations with Project Homeless Connect and Hamilton Family Center in San Francisco we learned that gently used shoes are a precious commodity. Shelters cannot afford to buy new pairs, and no one thinks of handing gently used shoes to this forgotten sector of society… And these are the people who need good shoes all the time, in rain, heat and inclement weather…
After 18 months of volunteering, we decided to formalize our status. We are pleased to share that effective 5/20/2016, Shoecyclist has been formally incorporated as a 501[c]3 non-profit organization (Our tax ID number is 81-2644825).
You see, it’s not really about a gently used pair of shoes. It’s about changing our perception about homelessness…
Arul, Satyak, Sarvesh and Himanshu.
If you want to donate shoes or are in need of shoes, please contact us at [email protected]
Shoecyclist Charitable deduction receipt Please print and fill it out for your records.