Running shoes will help fund more running area for dogs at a small non-profit animal shelter outside of Hiawatha, Kansas.

Ruth Shaver is the Brown County Humane Society President. According to Shaver, they moved into their current building, a former veterinary clinic, in 2015. The shelter takes in stray and unwanted animals in the Brown County area and, as space allows, in Nemaha and Doniphan counties.

Shaver said they run entirely on donations. They use Facebook and Petfinder to post information about adoptable pets and have gotten pets adopted to homes in Colorado and Canada.  

The shelter is collecting any kind of gently worn used shoes for a shoe drive through a fundraising company. Shaver said they will earn a certain amount per pound through the company and the shoes eventually end up in the hands of micro entrepreneurs from other countries.

“Your average families, maybe some Haitian families, they buy the shoes and then they clean them up and they re-sell them and that is how they make a living for their family, how they feed their family,” Shaver said. “So it not only helps us raise some money for some projects at the shelter but it also helps people in those 25 countries support their families and put food on the table and it keeps the shoes out of the landfills as well.” 

Shaver said the shoe drive will help raise funds for three more large play areas for the dogs at the shelter so they can get out of their kennels more often. 

“They can run and play and socialize,” Shaver said. “With adding three more, pretty much, twice a day, all the dogs should be able to go in the play yard. I’m just so passionate about letting them be a normal dog for a couple hours a day.” 

The Humane Society is collecting shoes until May 1st. 

For more information, contact the Brown County Humane Society at (785) 742-1976 or visit their Facebook page.