Shoes everywhere for Haiti relief

Orange County students, in their own small way, contributed to the ongoing relief effort in Haiti. They brought nearly 100 pairs of shoes to various schools Friday, part of a special program underway by Souls4Soles and Sports Chalet.

Nicole Hourigan’s two daughters, a first-grader and third-grader at Newport Elementary School, donated some of their shoes.

“Everybody wears shoes. Everybody has shoes. Everybody can relate,” Hourigan said. “This was a great way for the children to get involved and to understand what’s going on in Haiti.”

At Newport Elementary, students gave away roughly 75 pairs of shoes, and at Costa Mesa High School, while the number was much smaller at just a half dozen, Gloria Trujillo, the school athletic secretary, said she expects greater numbers of shoes to start piling up next week.

“The earthquake in Haiti is just a reminder of how fragile life can be,” Trujillo said, adding that students have until Friday to gather up as many pairs of shoes that they can.

At least a half dozen schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District are getting into the humanitarian swing of things, digging into the back of the closet for that special pair of shoes hoarded all these years — or, in some cases, donating $1,000 toward emergency kits, said district spokeswoman Laura Boss.

“We’re working pretty closely with our local Rotary clubs,” Boss said. “As next week progresses, I think there are going to be more and more schools getting involved with the effort.”

One such program is called “Giving Children Hope,” in which “shelter boxes” can be bought, then sent to Haiti.

“You can directly donate money online,” Boss said, adding that the shelter consists of blankets, water purification tablets, a cooking stove, among other necessities to survive.

Other schools in the district that have been helping out with the relief efforts include: Ensign Intermediate, and Rea, Lincoln, Victoria, Harbor View, Davis Magnet and Paularino elementary schools, which aren’t collecting items so much as passing along pertinent information for direct monetary donations, Boss said.

If you want to directly donate, log on to Shelter Box USA Inc., or bring items into the district’s education center, at Bear and Baker streets, she said.

For more information, call Boss at (714) 424-5070.