Shoe-Fest in Cobourg a blessing to Ukrainian refugees

COBOURG, Ont. – St. Paul Lutheran Church’s Ukraine project began in 2022. Unused space in the building quickly filled up with donations of gently used clothing, furniture, and housewares. Through social media, the church welcomed the community’s newcomers from Ukraine by offering a free “shopping” experience, which was overwhelmingly positive as the church welcomed people into the church building and the church family. 

As the 2023 Lenten season began, the church was contacted by a local shoe store. They were closing their doors and had a short time to empty their space. They wanted to donate their remaining inventory to the Ukraine project. The next day, the church received approximately 1,000 pairs of high quality new and vintage footwear. There was no immediate plan on how to distribute the footwear at the time, and there was some concern expressed about the crowded space the donation created, but the church moved forward as God’s faithful servants.

The next day, the church received approximately 1,000 pairs of high quality new and vintage footwear.

An idea was born. Planning began and the execution to set up, advertise, and open the doors for ShoeFest came to fruition within one week. The three-day Shoe-Fest event was a huge success! Many Ukrainian friends came out to the event. There were smiles and hugs and catching up with them about their lives as they gratefully selected their new shoes. Throughadvertising within the Ukrainian community, the church welcomed representatives from the Ukrainian Consulate from both Durham and Peterborough region, with whom the gift of shoes was also shared.

More than half the shoes were distributed through the shoe-fest event, and yet several hundred pairs remained, taking up much of the fellowship hall’s limited space. The hope was to find a suitable home for the remaining shoes before Easter. Reaching out to a local children’s aid society, a solution was found. Just a few days before Easter, a representative picked up the remaining shoes with a plan to make them available to children and families within the children’s aid society.

God blessed St. Paul’s with shoes and in doing so He blessed the church with the opportunity to come together for a greater cause, to put others’ needs ahead of our own, and to put fears, opposition, and differences aside. It was an opportunity to pick up the cross and follow Him.

Karen Kuehn

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