WaterStep

Save Lives by Donating at the Northminster Shoe Drive!

Many thanks for your support of our 2025 Shoe Drive!! We collected 4,729  pounds of shoes.

With our 12 years of collecting for WaterStep we have collected 64,942 pounds in total.

WHY SHOES?
Your donated shoes will be given to WaterStep, a nonprofit organization based in Louisville, KY. WaterStep sells the shoes to an exporter and uses those funds to provide safe water solutions to Third World countries and disaster areas around the world, including the US.

One pair of donated shoes serves multiple purposes:
1: Building the economy of a local community
2: Providing affordable footwear
3: Keeping shoes out of landfills

HOW DOES WATERSTEP HELP?
Through training and WaterStep’s simple technologies whole communities will have access to clean water. These technologies include well installations/Repairs, chlorine generators, rain catchment systems, Water on Wheels carts (mobile mini-water treatment plants). Training is done on those technologies, but also on health and sanitation.

WHY WATER?
Access to clean water is one of the Worlds biggest problems. Most people can just turn their faucet on and have clean water, but 1 in 10 people can’t (about 663 million people). There are many waterborne illnesses, such as cholera, and children are the most vulnerable. A child dies every 60 seconds due to diarrheal diseases per UNICEF’s Child Mortality Report.

In addition water collection takes hours a day, and the burden falls on the woman and girls. This keeps them from going to school, learning skills and taking care of their families. The entire community benefits!

In 2025, WaterStep will not be picking up the shoes, so Northminster will have to transport them to Louisville. If you donate shoes, please consider contributing towards the cost of transporting the shoes.

THANK YOU!