This beautiful 11-year-old saw a major need for the homeless children in her community, and is working her tail off to try to meet it!
Emily Inch, from North Carolina, has been helping the less fortunate since she was young, so giving back is nothing new to her. But, after learning that there are over 4,000 homeless kids in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg area alone, she stepped her game up in a huge way.
Emily started her own shoe drive, Soles for Kids, along with her friend Abby Pierce, to collect new or gently used shoes for kids in need. Their original goal was to collect 1,000 pairs of shoes, but in six weeks, they collected 1,898 pairs of shoes!
Check out more of Emily’s story below…
With her passion for this project, Emily has applied for and won grants from Youth Service America and Disney Summer of Service Program, which she uses to buy shoes for donation. “With the money, I cleared out two Walmarts of their shoe section,” she revealed to HooplaHa.
For 2018, Emily and Abby’s goal have a big goal of collecting 4,000 pairs of shoes! The drive will officially kick off again in January, but the two are always accepting donations of money and shoes. In fact, you can give to their GoFundMe now to help them continue to raise money!
Emily hopes to inspire other people with her charity work, especially kids her own age. “I want to help more kids get out there, start their own projects, and inspire more kids at an early age,” she admitted. That’s very commendable, and amazing for her to be so willing to give of her time and energy to help kids who truly need it.
Keep up the great work Emily!
Imperfectly B 