The Bruin Bookstore at Kellogg Community College will hold its annual sneaker drive all through April.
Used sneakers can be dropped off at the Bruin Bookstore, located in the Lane-Thomas Building on campus at 450 North Ave. in Battle Creek. Business hours for the Bruin Bookstore are 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays. The store is closed on Saturday and Sunday.
At the end of the month, bookstore staff will bring shoes still able to be worn to the Charitable Union, where they will be given to those in need. Shoes that are too worn out are brought to the Playmakers athletic store in Okemos to be recycled.
This yearly sneaker drive was started in 2014 and has been a huge success among the KCC community.
Head coordinator and Bruin Bookstore Manager Catherine James noted that 2021 was the biggest collection year ever, with a total of 258 pairs of shoes donated.
“It’s amazing how many people in the community stop and drop off their shoes,” James said. “We get a great response.”
James also said Battle Creek and Kalamazoo running clubs help collect donations for the drive, since runners must change their shoes after so many miles.
The Charitable Union provides the wearable donated shoes to community members in need, free of charge. Playmakers athletic store partners with Nike to recycle unwearable shoes and turn them into things such as bleachers, tracks and all sorts of items. This means no shoe is too worn out; everything can be reduced, reused, recycled!
When KCC student Jacob Spencer was asked what he thought of the Sneaker Collection, he said, “I think we all could benefit from having a little less of things in life to be able to appreciate what we already have.”
You can contact the Bruin Bookstore at 269-965-4128 or kccbookstore@kellogg.edu for more information.
So don’t wait! Start gathering your sneakers today as a way to get a jump start on spring cleaning and help your fellow community members.
