By Blake Deshazo

The Selma Times-Journal

Sophie Talton, a junior at Morgan Academy, has a collection of shoes like no other. But it isn’t because she has an obsession with shoes. It’s because she wants to help people in Nicaragua that need shoes desperately.

Since last summer, Talton and her friend Abby Crosby have collected between 5,000 and 6,000 pairs of shoes for Sole Food Ministries, a project that was inspired by a mission trip to El Bonete, Nicaragua.

“We were down there and we kind of saw a need,” Talton said. “A lot of people there don’t have shoes or great clothes, and we really wanted to make an impact.”

And that is just what the pair did.

“My friend created a Facebook page, and it kind of just started from there,” Talton said. “[Abby] created the page while I was on the airplane, so when I turned my phone off airplane mode, I had like 30 texts from people asking me questions about it and wanting to know what they could do to help.”

The pair started collecting shoes at their schools.

“At [Morgan Academy] we did a shoe drive. You could wear whatever you wanted to [to school] if you brought a pair of shoes, or you could pay $2. That way we raised money and we got shoes,” Talton said.

Talton’s classmates donated 830 pairs of shoes during its first drive, and since then that number has risen tremendously.

“I had no idea it would be this big,” Talton said. “Being from a small town, it has a small town feel where everybody just wants to help out. In school, everybody just started bringing shoes. People brought money, and they donated money.”

Talton and Crosby presented the idea of Sole Food Ministries at the Alabama Independent School Association’s Student Government Association meeting, and more than 20 schools chose to participate.

“It makes me feel really good. It makes me feel that God has really big plans for all of us,” Talton said. “It’s real encouraging to know that this can happen and this could take off one day and be a big thing.”

The shoes will be shipped to Nicaragua the first week of April to Emmauel House Protection, a home for girls that have been abused.

We’re not going to be able to go down to Nicaragua,” Talton said. “Some of our good friends from the Nicaragua mission trip work there, so they are going to make it a group project for the girls in the home to distribute the shoes.”

While each pair of shoes will help someone in need, Talton hopes it goes beyond that.

“When [the shoes] get down to Nicaragua they’re going to pair them with a bible translated into Spanish, so we’re sharing God’s word through shoes,” Talton said.