Even in uncertain times, Able Roof is committed to living out our core values of respecting everyone, achieving a sense of family in the workplace, giving back to the community, and being forward-thinking. Although the office staff is still operating from our homes due to the government stay-at-home order, we were able to identify an organization that enables us to focus on giving back to the community this spring—one that also gives us the opportunity to get rid of surplus shoe and clothing items we may have found through spring cleaning.
Soles4Souls repurposes shoes and clothing to create new business opportunities for people throughout the globe. Through donations, Soles4Souls allows people in developing countries to become micro-entrepreneurs, selling gently used goods to their local communities. Approximately 767 million people around the world live on less than $1.90 per day. For many in developing nations, finding a reliable job that generates a sustainable income is not easy. In places like Honduras, Haiti, and parts of Africa, people must generate their own income, and programs like Soles4Souls make that possible.
Each Able Roof team member was tasked to donate at least three items from their closets to this worthy cause. Although stay-at-home orders are in place, convenient drop boxes were placed at all the offices for safe collection of the items. Soles4Souls also makes it easy to donate through online distributors such as Zappos, for people who are more comfortable contributing this way.
On May 1, we celebrated the end of our donation drive with a virtual happy hour. We had 101 unique attendees on the conference channel, each raising a glass to over 4,000 shoes and garments collected over the past few weeks for Soles4Souls, over 10 items per person, easily surpassing our goal of three. We feel extremely blessed to have the opportunity to act as leaders and stewards to our community and seek to improve the quality of life for everyone where we live and work.
