To the editor:

Thank you South Whidbey! You donated more than 1,000 pairs of shoes to our Shoes for Africa drive — about half a ton’s worth!

We’ve bound and packed the more than 750 pairs (about 860 pounds of shoes) that met the need for “gently used athletic shoes and sandals,” and will ship them off to Georgia, along with the more than $460 you stuck in their toes to help defray the cost of shipping them from there to Senegal.

The balance of the shoes — many of them very nice, but inappropriate for physical activity in African villages — have been donated to Good Cheer, or given to an organization that repairs and distributes more heavily used shoes.

We’d like to thank:

The PTSAs at South Whidbey Elementary, Langley Middle School and South Whidbey High School, and Tyler Norris, student president at SWHS.

The schools, FamilyCare Fitness Center, and Island Athletic Club for hosting our shoe barrels, and Good Cheer for providing them. A special shout-out to the members of IAC for donating probably half of all the shoes collected.

Angus MacDonald at U-Haul in Freeland, for the charitable discount on our shipping boxes.

Once the shoes arrive in Senegal, they will be distributed by vans traveling from village to village. Somewhere in Senegal, some man, woman or child will be protected from a nasty debilitating disease because people in villages on Whidbey Island were so generous.

Blake and Lynn Willeford

The Clyde Theatre