Sunday School group collects shoes for Iraqi kids

by Signal American Staff

Members of the Weiser Community Church high school Sunday school class shipped more than 100 pairs of shoes to Iraq last week for children left destitute by two wars separated by a 10-year economic embargo.

Kay Hartnett, the class instructor, said her students put out collection boxes in the church and collected shoes from friends and neighbors. They collected a total of 102 pairs of shoes, most of them new, for the barefoot children of Iraq.

The students dedicated all the earnings from their annual cake walk fundraiser toward the shipping charges. The total was $129, Hartnett said. The students participating were: Jesse Fuller, Jennifer Gahm, Annie Hafer, Katie Hafer, Lyndon Haines, D.J. Hiner, Amanda Johnson, Colby Jones, Seth Kiesel, Chance Lee, Lauren Oyervides, Layna Oyervides, Brandon Shaver, Ted Shaver, Tommy Sweet, Justin Syme, and Priscilla Weideman.

Hartnett said the idea for the pro-ject came from an article in the Weiser Signal American written by former Weiser resident Silvia (Perez) DeLeon, whose husband Lt. Col. Dr. Robin DeLeon was serving with the Texas National Guard in Iraq.

Dr. DeLeon ran a small Troop Medical Clinic for his brigade. On their own time, the medics and physician assistants in the medical unit went to nearby towns and villages to provide medical care to the Iraqi people.

“When we go out on these missions, we also give away shoes,” Dr. DeLeon said in the Signal American story. “Many of the children are barefoot or have old, worn shoes. The new or used shoes get them more excited than the candy we give out.”

Dr. DeLeon is currently in Boise working at the Boise VA Hospital, but will soon be returning to Iraq for a tour of duty with the Idaho National Guard.

The response to his request for shoes was overwhelming, Dr. DeLeon said in a telephone interview last week. The Signal American story of Dr. DeLeon’s medical team’s missions was cited as an example of American soldiers helping the people of Iraq in a large feature story published by The Wall Street Journal. When the story appeared on the Journal’s website, Dr. DeLeon said, it provided a link to the original story on the Signal American website.

Before long the shoes began rolling in to the point that supply exceeded demand. That was no problem, Dr. DeLeon said, in that the supply lines could be extended. Distributing shoes did become a major job for soldiers that didn’t have a lot of time for extra work.

Dr. DeLeon described the response as a real blessing and said he could feel the prayers of the people who sent the shoes.

--WEISER SIGNAL AMERICAN
6/29/05