Broncos Donate 395 Pairs of Shoes to Soles4Souls
Originally posted on broncoathletics.com
Over a two-week span at the beginning of April, the Cal Poly Pomona women's basketball team rounded up 395 pairs of shoes and donated them to Soles4Souls, a non-profit that distributes shoes and clothing to communities in need around the world.
Head coach Danelle Bishop got the idea from CCAA rival Cal State San Bernardino, where its women's basketball team collected 284 pairs of shoes in the month of January.
"I stole the idea from Cal State San Bernardino after I saw them posting information on their social media sites, so I looked into it," Bishop said. "Once I finally heard back (from CSUSB), myself and my assistants, ZsaZsa Lawson and JJ Judge, just presented it to our team and promoted it more as a competition between us and CSUSB since we couldn't actually play them on the court this year."
Bishop contributed upwards of 60 pairs of shoes, while student-athletes Jayda Villareal, Chynna Cochran, Rebecca Islas and Monica Todd all brought in 35-40 pairs each by raiding the closets of friends and family members.
"I have a really big family, so I asked them to clean out their closets because we had to get as many shoes as we can," explained Villareal. "It brought out the competitive side of me because we have to beat CSUSB in everything, so I stole everything from my family's closets."
Not only was it a friendly competition between two conference rivals, but it also humbled the team in many ways.
"It was a win-win for us, like we can beat CSUSB in the competition, but we could also clean out our closets and realize that we don't need all these things, and that I could be giving back to communities and to families that don't have shoes," added Cochran.
"They (CSUSB) probably didn't even know we were competing with them," Bishop admitted. "But to me, it was a worthwhile competition. So, on our end, not only were we doing it to obviously try and top the Coyotes' efforts, but we also wanted to bless those that are going to be on the receiving end of this. It's a blessing and extremely humbling to give back to the many people around the world that will benefit from our efforts."
Bishop plans to make the shoe drive for Soles4Souls a yearly event and will challenge other teams to compete with them in helping others.
Also this month, the CPP Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), in collaboration with the CCAA, sponsored a week-long Virtual Food Drive that raised $500 towards the
Poly Pantry, which was established in 2019 to serve Cal Poly Pomona students impacted by food insecurity.
About Soles4Souls
Soles4Souls disrupts the cycle of poverty by creating sustainable jobs and providing relief through the distribution of shoes and clothing around the world. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, the organization repurposes product to supply its micro-enterprise, disaster relief and direct assistance programs. Since 2006, we have distributed more than 53 million pairs of shoes in 127 countries and generated over $250 million in economic impact. A non-profit social enterprise, Soles4Souls earns more than 70% of its income and commits 100% of donations to programs. Visit
soles4souls.org for more information.