Style your sole this Friday at charity shoe drive

Feet in the Rio Grande Valley have motivated a 16-year-old to organize a charity event.

Hannah Flicker, a 16-year-old junior at McAllen Memorial High School, moved to McAllen from San Francisco earlier this year. She likes her new home.

She loves the weather, the lifestyle and the growing arts scene. But she has noticed the shoes. People don’t wear cool shoes. Hannah misses one brand in particular.

In California, Hannah says, tons of people wear Toms Shoes, a simple brand of footwear made from canvas. There’s something special about Toms Shoes: For every pair someone buys, the company donates a pair to a needy child. By the end of the year, Toms Shoes will have donated more than 300,000 pairs around the world, according to the company’s Web site.

ABOUT TOMS SHOES
Blake Mycoskie started Toms Shoes in 2006 after traveling to Argentina and noticing children there lacked adequate footwear. Mycoskie returned home and founded his footwear company, which donates a pair to needy children for every pair they sell. By the end of that year, the company had sold and donated more than 10,000 pairs of shoes. By the end of 2009, the company expects to have donated more than 300,000 pairs.
Source: www.tomsshoes.com

Hannah says she likes the charity and the style, which includes many influences from across the fashion world. As a fan, she wanted to bring the footwear to the Valley. And she’s done so in a big way.

Hannah is organizing Style You Sole, a party combined with a shoe decoration session. It happens 7 p.m. Friday at the Creative Incubator in McAllen. The event includes food, music and art supplies for participants wishing to decorate their own kicks.

Local artists Carl Vestweber, Paul Valadez and Wendy Gilbert will also paint shoes, putting them up for silent auction.

Hannah has also localized the charity idea. She solicited donations from Valley residents and has collected enough money to buy shoes for an entire class of fifth-grade students from La Grulla. She says about 60 students will attend the event, and they get to decorate their new donated shoes.

Many local donors and businesses have supported the event. More than 50 people signed up to buy shoes for the students.

Hannah says she’s thrilled about the charity, and she’s excited to see a Valley-wide uptick in shoe awesomeness.

“In California, everyone wears Toms Shoes,” Hannah says.

And in a few days, many people in the Valley will wear them, too.

STYLE YOUR SOLE
WHERE: Creative Incubator, 1001 S. 16th St., McAllen
WHEN: 7 to 11 p.m., Friday, Dec. 11
ONLINE: http://www.sc2000.net/~schelllaw/toms.shoes/
FEATURING: Live music, snacks and shoe decoration

Zack Quaintance covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4447.