COLORADO SPRINGS — Thousands of shoes are headed to communities in need after a local dance studio stepped up to help.
The Latisha Hardy Dance and Co. Limited teamed up with Funds2Orgs for a shoe drive fundraiser. The dancers loaded a truck Saturday afternoon with more than 3,000 new and gently worn shoes.
"How incredible is it to be able to influence a community in such a powerful way," said Latisha Hardy.
The shoes collected will be transported by the Funds2Orgs group to several countries in Africa. The shoes will be sold to small business owners for a low price, helping them create a path out of poverty.
"We send them to the company. They calculate them all, it's paid through weight and then those shoes are broken down, rebuilt and shipped to those countries so they can sell them in their community and build profits," said Ashley Coffey.
Coffey is the fundraiser captain for the dance studio. She says the community rallied together to help them with the shoe drive.
"I would have friends of friends that saw it on Next-door coming and dropping off shoes or we would get shoes from people's porches," said Coffey.
"We've just had people dumping hundreds of shoes off at our doorstep," said Hardy.
She says the military also stepped in to help with the shoe drive.
"Fort Carson donated some things, people inside the Air Force Academy, people inside Peterson," said Hardy.
She says it's important for them to build culture and diversity within their community. They'll be working on more projects to ensure they are making a difference any way they can.
