JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A pair of brothers who have been collecting used shoes at the Gate River Run for more than a decade and donating them to the homeless want this year's collection to be their biggest yet.
Carey and Brian Hepler are asking everyone to spread the word about their charity drive.
They have donated over 10,000 shoes to soup kitchens downtown and over 15,000 T-shirts to Rethreaded, a Jacksonville nonprofit that fights human trafficking, since they started collecting in 2003.
“It has been a great pop-up charity,” Carey Hepler said. “Now we are a tradition. People remember and they bring their shoes, so it’s great.”
Runners and spectators can bring used running shoes and T-shirts to the brothers' tent outside the River Run Expo until 7 p.m. Friday and from 6 a.m. to race time on Saturday.
“You may not be able to use your old running shoes anymore, but to the homeless people of Jacksonville, they're like gold,” the brothers wrote on Facebook.
This year's shoe donations will go to St. Francis Soup Kitchen.
“We will go over there Saturday after the race and they will have all these dudes out there ready to get them and we take big sacks and slide them down. It’s a big thing, a big deal for them,” Carey Hepler said. “It is very significant.”