The Deptford Township Police Department is on a mission to collect 2,500 pairs of shoes by Nov. 2.
The public is invited to participate in a shoe drive to raise funds to benefit Deptford residents in need.
For this venture, the department has partnered with nonprofit Funds2Orgs. For the police department, this partnership will convert shoes into cash. For Funds2Orgs, the shoes will provide a sustainable living wage for micro-entrepreneurs in developing nations.
Funds2Orgs tasked the Deptford police with a collection goal of 2,500 pairs of shoes. The department will receive 40 cents per pound of shoes, and that money will be used to help Deptford residents, assisting families with holiday gifts, food or whatever is needed.
Since its inception on Sept. 2, the drive has netted almost 400 shoes.
The idea behind the drive is to get the community involved with the department. Community policing helps spread a positive light in the community so residents can feel comfortable and get to know their officers.
“If I go somewhere as community police, then everybody wants to see me. Patrol not so much,” said Danielle Emmons, an officer in the department’s newly formed Community Policing Unit. “We just try to bring everybody together.”
It’s the first year the department has been involved with the shoe drive initiative, which is being held through the new Community Policing Unit, according to Emmons.
“I wanted to do something specifically for families in the community,” she said.
When she was working on patrol a few years ago during the Christmas holidays, Emmons’ squad came across a mother with three young kids who was recently diagnosed with cancer. The mother hadn’t planned for the diagnosis, and she didn’t know how she could financially get through the holidays. The squad chipped in together to buy gifts and dropped them off on Christmas Eve.
“There’s other families within the community we don’t always know about,” said Emmons. “Now that I’m in community policing, I wanted to do it as a whole to get everybody involved.”
The unit will be involved in upcoming events in Deptford such as the Fall Festival and Trunk or Treat.
The department is asking residents to donate gently worn, used and new shoes to a bin in the police department lobby at 1011 Cooper St. They are accepting any type of shoe, and Funds2Orgs requests shoes be rubber banded together or the laces tied to prevent the pairs from separating.
