Hobbits for Humanity donates shoes to the homeless
Oct. 7th
By Ben Nielsen
On Monday, the first Hobbits for Humanity activity put on by Utah State University’s Aggie Outdoor Volunteers and Sustainability programs collected shoes to donate to St. Anne’s homeless shelter in Ogden.
The stand was set up from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the northeast corner of the university’s quad, where volunteers would ask passerby if they would like to donate shoes to the homeless. The volunteers didn’t wear shoes while collecting donations because hobbits, fictional creatures in the popular book-turned-movie series the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, are always barefoot.
As students walked past the stand, the barefoot volunteers would ask them for shoes. Some students took this question literally, including Braden Hess, a USU student who pulled the shoes off his feet and dropped them in the donation bin.
“The volunteers did a great job of setting a good example in not wearing shoes,” Hess said. “So I imagined my shoes on a homeless guy and thought he’d look pretty good in them.”
Sarah Woodbury, director of Aggie Outdoor Volunteers, said that people could either donate their old shoes, or buy some from the AOV for 7 dollars and have them donated.
“We really love what we do,” said Matea Pearson, another AOV member. “It makes us so happy to be able to help people out like this.”
Woodbury said she considers the first Hobbits for Humanity to be a success.
“At the end of the day we’d collected 41 pairs of shoes,” she said.
The organization will be taking the donated shoes to St. Anne’s on Saturday.
By Ben Nielsen
On Monday, the first Hobbits for Humanity activity put on by Utah State University’s Aggie Outdoor Volunteers and Sustainability programs collected shoes to donate to St. Anne’s homeless shelter in Ogden.
The stand was set up from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the northeast corner of the university’s quad, where volunteers would ask passerby if they would like to donate shoes to the homeless. The volunteers didn’t wear shoes while collecting donations because hobbits, fictional creatures in the popular book-turned-movie series the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, are always barefoot.
As students walked past the stand, the barefoot volunteers would ask them for shoes. Some students took this question literally, including Braden Hess, a USU student who pulled the shoes off his feet and dropped them in the donation bin.
“The volunteers did a great job of setting a good example in not wearing shoes,” Hess said. “So I imagined my shoes on a homeless guy and thought he’d look pretty good in them.”
Sarah Woodbury, director of Aggie Outdoor Volunteers, said that people could either donate their old shoes, or buy some from the AOV for 7 dollars and have them donated.
“We really love what we do,” said Matea Pearson, another AOV member. “It makes us so happy to be able to help people out like this.”
Woodbury said she considers the first Hobbits for Humanity to be a success.
“At the end of the day we’d collected 41 pairs of shoes,” she said.
The organization will be taking the donated shoes to St. Anne’s on Saturday.