Dozens of shoes gathered by students at Prince Philip School will soon be on the feet of children in Africa.

Students in teacher Kellie Bell’s Grade 1 class -- “The Onederful Grade Ones” – recently read the book New Old Shoes by Charlotte Blessing.

Inspired by the book, the students decided they wanted to be global citizens and help children in Africa by sending gently used shoes. 

“We read the book to them, and one student made a connection to the fact that we collected cans of food in buckets for the Friendship Inn, so why couldn’t we collect New Old Shoes in buckets and send them to Africa?,” Bell explained.

Families were asked to donate their used shoes and just five days later the students and their families had collected a total of 111 pairs that are now headed to Africa.

The original plan was to pay to ship the shoes overseas. However, a parent of one of the students in the class works for WestJet and now the airline has stepped forward to make sure the shoes take flight.