Turning Point is hosting a shoe collection drive-thru on October 15th, to help those facing the wintery weather with cold toes.  The shoe collection drive-thru will be hosted in the Northern Parkland Mall parking lot in Red Deer just outside of Good Life Fitness.

Although they will be collecting all sorts of shoes, winter boots are in highest demand as extreme freezing temperatures become more and more common in the coming months.

“We're looking to collect 200 shoes for the month of October because we know this time of year, a lot of our streets clients and just street people in general are going without shoes. It's really important that we're able to give that because we do have a lot of people coming to us for clothing similar items,” said Mitchell Danser, Communications and Community Engagement Coordinator.

This is the first time Turning Point has held a shoe drive but Danser is hoping that they can build a stock of shoes so that the organization can offer shoes to those in need.  He says many of their clients, and those facing homelessness often get frost bite on their feet and toes and Turning Point hopes to remedy that by offering a good pair of boots or shoes.

At the shoe drive-thru, he says those donating can simply drive up and pop their trunk for collection.

“I'll have everything set up in terms of COVID safety, so we'll definitely have social distancing in play. If you want to just come up at their vehicles and just drop them off in a bin, we will also have tables with hand sanitizer. If people feel like they want to use that as well, I'll be wearing masks and gloves the entire time,” said Danser.

While shoes may be commonplace items to the average person, for those facing homelessness or living life on the streets a good pair of shoes can be difficult to come by, damaged, or easily lost.

“There's so many times that either shoes are stolen from them, or they get damaged, and then they end up not having shoes for the winter time. We've had situations with clients during the winter wearing only socks. It's really important that we have these shoes available for them in times of need, especially because a lot of our clients are outside all the time,” explained Danser.

If you want to stop by the shoe drive-thru it will be open from 1PM to 4PM on Thursday, October 15th.  You can also bring a spare pair of shoes to Goodlife Fitness or Turning Point for the rest of October.