Got old shoes? Check out Nathan’s project!

Sometimes it takes the fresh, untainted perspective of a teen to solve problems that government agencies and adults can’t.

One of my college advisory clients came up with a clever solution that solves 2 problems: (1) overflowing landfills and (2) people needing shoes.

After learning about our landfills actually filling up with nowhere to dump our tons of garbage, Nathan founded S.H.O.E. (Stop Hurting Our Environment) last year.

What’s really exciting is that Nathan didn’t get depressed or feel overwhelmed by this dilemma. Instead, he thought that if he could get people to donate all of their old shoes so that they don’t end up in the landfills, he could prevent tons of shoes from prematurely meeting their expiration dates. That’s coming from a 6-foot tall young man who has always outgrown his shoes before he could wear them out! Then he decided to donate these used shoes to people who could benefit from them.  And that’s how this brilliant model came to be.

With no experience in graphic design or website development, Nathan forged ahead to create his logo, fliers, and website. This wasn’t easy as he had to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, and WordPress. I don’t think he knew what he was getting himself into but I am so proud of him for his determination to get each phase of his project done even while he played on the San Jose Junior Sharks hockey team.  He mastered using his Merit Planner because he had to juggle homework, project, and out-of-town hockey tournaments. 

So please support Nathan and take your old shoes to one of his collection sites.  You can drop off shoes at Merit Santa Cruz or Merit Cupertino.

Just think, he made it easy for us to give landfills a bit of relief and to donate shoes to those who need them. We need more kids like Nathan – kids who know that they can change the world one project at a time! Thanks Nathan!