thedrifter
07-12-09, 06:21 AM
Woman collects shoes to raise money for vets
By Beccy Tanner - The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle via AP
Posted : Saturday Jul 11, 2009 15:49:39 EDT
WICHITA, Kan. — Faye Evans is losing her eyesight to an auto-immune disease. But she’s focused on shoes. She wants to collect 333,333 pounds of tennis shoes, high heels, business shoes and boots — just about anything with a sole. She estimates that will be enough to raise $50,000.
She needs the money not for herself but to make hospice rooms comfortable for veterans at the Robert J. Dole Veterans Administration Hospital.
“If it wasn’t for veterans and soldiers, we wouldn’t have what we have,” Evans said. “We owe them everything. ... We need to stand by them and help them. ... We need to let them know we care.”
So she’s collecting shoes, which she will sell to a thrift center.
Old shoes. New shoes. Stinky shoes. Tap shoes. Shoes that skate. Shoes that flip-flop against bare heels.
She takes any kind of shoe as long as it has a sole and isn’t a Jellie, “because they will melt.”
She has succeeded in her shoe drives before. Three years ago, she raised $7,000 for the VA’s Avenue of Flags project and $5,000 for a minivan that shuttles veterans from Hutchinson to Wichita for the VA.
Last year, she raised $3,000 so the veterans building could have an aviary, which she thought would be therapeutic “for the guys.”
So far, she’s raised $6,000 to equip the hospice rooms and a family room with slices of home life — sleeper sofas for family, small refrigerators and microwaves, flat-screen TVs, paintings and wall hangings, towels and washcloths for the bathrooms.
Evans is well known at the VA hospital in Wichita, where she volunteers.
“She is passionate,” said Deb Brehm, voluntary service specialist at the hospital. “ ... She just loves the veterans and helping the families.”
Volunteers like Evans are essential to the VA, Brehm said, because they provide creature comforts.
“One of the things about the VA is that Congress appropriates only so much money for the budget,” Brehm said.
Evans’ donations make the institution feel more like a home, said Laura Taylor, director of extended care at the VA center.
“Instead of institutional medical equipment in the room — we will have that — but we will also have a headboard in front of every bed, a nice side chair and furniture to outfit the rooms,” Taylor said.
“She is an amazing volunteer for us,” Taylor said. “She is so very energetic, passionate and patriotic. She is one of those kind of quiet people that’s small but mighty.
“When she decides to do something she is very determined. She is what we would call here ‘Mission Focused.’ ”
Her eyesight betrays her. Evans, 63, writes notes to herself in handwriting nearly an inch tall.
“I feel like I am on borrowed time,” she says. “Ultimately, I will go blind unless I find some research to help me.”
She has Grave’s disease, an autoimmune disease that threatens her eyesight and forced her to have her thyroid removed.
Already she has had to give up some things. Her balance has been affected, so she can no longer ride her beloved motorcycle as an American Legion Rider.
There’s an urgency in her voice when she talks about tracing the generations of family who served in the military back to the Civil War. In her lifetime, it has been her father, her son, uncles and brothers.
She is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary. She collects the shoes through American Legion Post 401, 101 E. 31st St. South in Wichita.
She sometimes enlists the help of churches, schools, Scout troops and 4-H groups. Donors can drop shoes off at the American Legion Post or call Evans and she will come and gather them.
She then takes the shoes to the Disabled American Veterans distribution center to be weighed. She gets credit for pounds of shoes she collects.
“When I reach my goal or at the end of the year, I’ll ask for a check,” she said. “It takes hundreds of thousands of pounds of shoes to reach this goal.”
Shoes in the best condition will be resold through the DAV; others will be recycled, Evans said.
“These hospice rooms are so necessary — the patients are people who have been declared to have six months or less of life,” Evans said. “We need to provide for them, so that their families can come and be with them.
“... After all they have given us, the end needs to come for them in peace. We owe that to them.”
She plans to continue raising money for veterans even after she raises the $50,000.
Next up: $35,000 to pay for honor flights for World War II veterans who want to see the memorial dedicated to them in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve got 700 registered soldiers wanting to go,” Evans said. “It takes $500 per soldier to get them there.
“I need to get this done as soon as possible while I still can.”
Ellie
By Beccy Tanner - The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle via AP
Posted : Saturday Jul 11, 2009 15:49:39 EDT
WICHITA, Kan. — Faye Evans is losing her eyesight to an auto-immune disease. But she’s focused on shoes. She wants to collect 333,333 pounds of tennis shoes, high heels, business shoes and boots — just about anything with a sole. She estimates that will be enough to raise $50,000.
She needs the money not for herself but to make hospice rooms comfortable for veterans at the Robert J. Dole Veterans Administration Hospital.
“If it wasn’t for veterans and soldiers, we wouldn’t have what we have,” Evans said. “We owe them everything. ... We need to stand by them and help them. ... We need to let them know we care.”
So she’s collecting shoes, which she will sell to a thrift center.
Old shoes. New shoes. Stinky shoes. Tap shoes. Shoes that skate. Shoes that flip-flop against bare heels.
She takes any kind of shoe as long as it has a sole and isn’t a Jellie, “because they will melt.”
She has succeeded in her shoe drives before. Three years ago, she raised $7,000 for the VA’s Avenue of Flags project and $5,000 for a minivan that shuttles veterans from Hutchinson to Wichita for the VA.
Last year, she raised $3,000 so the veterans building could have an aviary, which she thought would be therapeutic “for the guys.”
So far, she’s raised $6,000 to equip the hospice rooms and a family room with slices of home life — sleeper sofas for family, small refrigerators and microwaves, flat-screen TVs, paintings and wall hangings, towels and washcloths for the bathrooms.
Evans is well known at the VA hospital in Wichita, where she volunteers.
“She is passionate,” said Deb Brehm, voluntary service specialist at the hospital. “ ... She just loves the veterans and helping the families.”
Volunteers like Evans are essential to the VA, Brehm said, because they provide creature comforts.
“One of the things about the VA is that Congress appropriates only so much money for the budget,” Brehm said.
Evans’ donations make the institution feel more like a home, said Laura Taylor, director of extended care at the VA center.
“Instead of institutional medical equipment in the room — we will have that — but we will also have a headboard in front of every bed, a nice side chair and furniture to outfit the rooms,” Taylor said.
“She is an amazing volunteer for us,” Taylor said. “She is so very energetic, passionate and patriotic. She is one of those kind of quiet people that’s small but mighty.
“When she decides to do something she is very determined. She is what we would call here ‘Mission Focused.’ ”
Her eyesight betrays her. Evans, 63, writes notes to herself in handwriting nearly an inch tall.
“I feel like I am on borrowed time,” she says. “Ultimately, I will go blind unless I find some research to help me.”
She has Grave’s disease, an autoimmune disease that threatens her eyesight and forced her to have her thyroid removed.
Already she has had to give up some things. Her balance has been affected, so she can no longer ride her beloved motorcycle as an American Legion Rider.
There’s an urgency in her voice when she talks about tracing the generations of family who served in the military back to the Civil War. In her lifetime, it has been her father, her son, uncles and brothers.
She is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary. She collects the shoes through American Legion Post 401, 101 E. 31st St. South in Wichita.
She sometimes enlists the help of churches, schools, Scout troops and 4-H groups. Donors can drop shoes off at the American Legion Post or call Evans and she will come and gather them.
She then takes the shoes to the Disabled American Veterans distribution center to be weighed. She gets credit for pounds of shoes she collects.
“When I reach my goal or at the end of the year, I’ll ask for a check,” she said. “It takes hundreds of thousands of pounds of shoes to reach this goal.”
Shoes in the best condition will be resold through the DAV; others will be recycled, Evans said.
“These hospice rooms are so necessary — the patients are people who have been declared to have six months or less of life,” Evans said. “We need to provide for them, so that their families can come and be with them.
“... After all they have given us, the end needs to come for them in peace. We owe that to them.”
She plans to continue raising money for veterans even after she raises the $50,000.
Next up: $35,000 to pay for honor flights for World War II veterans who want to see the memorial dedicated to them in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve got 700 registered soldiers wanting to go,” Evans said. “It takes $500 per soldier to get them there.
“I need to get this done as soon as possible while I still can.”
Ellie