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Noah Love, 6, tries on a pair of shoes with the help of James Block during the Back to School Bash at Pepin Park Aug. 18. The drive to collect shoes for this year's Back to School Bash already has started, with organizer Christy Edmonds setting up several collection points.
The Back to School Bash event is beginning to look for donations with a shoe drive for this year's event.
This year will be the third annual Back to School Bash and will be held Aug. 24.
The activities are in conjunction with the Salvation Army's Back to School Bash, which supplies backpacks and school supplies for low-income families as well as providing free shoes, haircuts, carnival games, lunch and a guest speaker.
"So just kind of a fun day for kids," event organizer Christy Edmonds said.
The Back to School Bash has been supplying backpacks and school supplies for 14 years, but organizers started calling it the Back to School Bash three years ago.
The planning process starts every year around May. When Edmonds started collaborating, it became a major community event, held in Pepin Park in a carnival atmosphere for the past few years.
Edmonds said that they gave away approximately 110 pairs of shoes, 108 backpacks and had more than 300 people attend the event last year.
"It was a pretty good time," she said.
The Salvation Army is not taking donations until later in the year, but Edmonds is beginning to collect shoe donations, she said.
"I am doing it a bit different this year," she said.
She said that they need to begin collecting shoes because they need to have a count of inventory by June. In June they will be able to see the demand and the inventory they have so they are able to put in an order with non-profit shoe supplier Samaritan's Feet for the shoes they still need. If she places the order in June, they will be able to have all of the shoes for the children by the Back to School Bash in August.
People can drop off the shoes at several locations, Edmonds said, such as Gary & Leo's Fresh Foods, Crawford Distillery, Gram's Ice Cream and Candy Shoppe, Dollar Tree and Northstar Athletics.
"People need to bring in new shoes, we do not take used shoes," she said.
She added that they will be taking shoes from children's size 10 to adult size 12.
Edmonds said that they are also looking for beauticians to volunteer to provide haircuts.
People interested can contact Edmonds at 390-0977.
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