Three years ago, Karen left her executive position in corporate America when she could no longer take the disparity that resulted from working against her sense of integrity and ethics. Suffering from constant hip pains, breast cysts, depression, sleeplessness and other symptoms of stress, Karen felt she was living two lives. "One reason I left corporate America is that I got tired of it being so one-sided. In the situation I was in, it was always, 'What can you do for me?' In my spare time, I was always doing charity work, and then going to work where the question was always, 'What's in it for me?' For example, one day a top level executive of the company came to me and said, "Karen I really like you, your region brought in 51% of our income this year. But why wasn't it higher?" I knew it was time to leave when I heard myself say, 'I don't really want you to like me. I work for money.' That was a big wake-up call.

"I was struggling to make sense of some of the politics and misinformation that was happening. A month before I left, my emails and those of the two of the people that worked for me were wiped out. I thought I was going crazy. One day I got a call and a woman said to me, I want you to know that you are not crazy. They are shredding your documents and changing your reports. She said she quit after she was instructed to do so. My husband, who has been tremendously supportive of me, works in the same industry. Frightened that I was about to break into pieces, he offered to attend a convention with me in Las Vegas. A day after we arrived, I was getting ready to go work my booth. He looked at me and he said, 'It's over, Karen, isn't it? Would you like me to take you home today or tomorrow?' I said, 'Honey, I want to go home today.' I'll never forget him saying, 'Give me a half-hour to make the plane reservations and call your physician.' During the two previous weeks I had been under doctor's care for the significant stress. Immediately upon arriving in Fort Lauderdale, my husband drove me to my office to clean out my desk. I knew I couldn't work there any more. When I got home from the office cleaning, my face had turned such a bright red; he thought I was going to have a stroke. To this day, I have never returned to that building.

"I could not believe that my company could treat me the way they did. My team and I worked very hard and accomplished all our goals, but it was never enough. I was so devastated after I quit that I could literally not chew gum and walk. I remember looking in the mirror and thinking, How could I have come to this state? When I left I had eighteen weeks of accumulated sick days and vacation, which tells you how much of a workaholic I had become. How dedicated I was."

Filing a disability claim for stress allowed Karen to have a partial income while she recuperated and could begin to look to the future. One day, several months after her corporate departure, a friend asked Karen to help her find a place to donate two bags of her children's outgrown shoes. "I believe this was a moment when God stepped in to help me find this path. I made a few calls. I called organizations such as Catholic Charities, Partnership for the Homeless and Kids in Distress. All of them told me that children's shoes were one of their greatest needs. I was astounded. I had read that as a nation Americans consume 65% of the world's goods, and here I was being told that kids still needed shoes. I could not stop thinking about it. I started to piece things together. I did my homework. I looked for organizations that specifically gave new shoes to children, but there were none in this area.

Hearing the Call

"I know that Spirit ... the Universe puts ideas in your mind at certain crossroads. I thought about my experience in corporate marketing and sales, and got an idea of going to corporate America and asking for their seconds, overstocked, or discontinued shoes. Children would get the new shoes, and a business would get a tax write-off and PR from their donation, if they wanted it. It would be a win-win. I began to do an exhaustive search on www.guidestar.org , the search engine for non-profits, and put in children and shoes. I came up with 187 hits. I had the idea of one non-profit helping another. I heard that each of us is going to walk about 115,000 miles on our feet during our lifetime. When I formed Shoes for the Soul, I felt it would be a simple, but phenomenal thing to do--to put a new pair of shoes on the feet of a child.

"I had found my mission of how to serve another human being. The other non-profits piece these children back together in some form - emotionally, mentally, etc. They shelter them. I simply wanted to give them a new pair of shoes and spread a light of hope."

The Vision Takes Shape

"I took some local courses on forming non-profit 501-C3s. I had a paralegal background, so I researched everything. We distribute the new shoes through social workers and family case workers. Schools and other non-profits are required to tell us about the population they serve and why they need the shoes and requests are passed along to and discussed with at least three board members. Our present focus is Broward County in Florida, and we have been asked to move into Miami. My ultimate goal is to serve children nationwide and internationally.

"The kids we serve have usually been abused mentally, emotionally, and physically. I have heard so many, many heartbreaking stories. A gym teacher told me about a pair of seven year old twin boys. She couldn't figure out why one boy was missing gym class. She found out they were sharing a pair of shoes. so he only could come to class every other week. A clinic of a major hospital that just wrote a letter saying they have approximately sixty children and siblings in need of shoes. These kids are afflicted with HIV and their families have a rough time around the start of the school year. Some of these children's entire families have been wiped out because of the HIV virus. Our goal is to place a pair of shoes on their feet. The largest groups of children we work with are part of the homeless education program.

I didn't know this before, but there is a national association of homeless school coordinators. At the turn of the century, homelessness was a children's issue. One hundred years later, it still is. The children that live in shelters all have a family case worker. They send me a list of children, age. the shoe size and the kind of shoes needed-such as, dress shoes, school shoes, or athletic shoes. Each pair of shoes has a little tag that says Shoes for the Soul, with the child's name, age, and shoe size. It's a personalized gift. We currently have about four thousand pairs of shoes in our warehouse."

Karen reflects, "I used my severance pay to start Shoes for the Soul and I've never regretted it for a second. I've changed my entire lifestyle. I gave up the housekeeper I had once a week. I've put away my Nieman Marcus credit card, and I'm the happiest I've ever been. I'm down from a size of six dress to a size two and I eat very healthily. About two years ago I stopped drinking soda. Now I just drink water and green tea. I've had several people ask me if I've had a face lift! I guess I didn't realize how much the stress had aged me when I worked at my previous career. I exercise regularly every day, and I feel balanced. I'm Catholic by background , and after looking at both religion and spirituality, I've chosen spirituality I guess if I could sum it up in a phrase, I serve others to the best of my ability in all that I say and do. I'm very grateful that God allowed me to look at the word ego and really see what it meant. Today ego means to me: Easing God Out.

"I have learned that you can manifest absolutely anything you want. With the change in my lifestyle, good things just keep happening. All you have to do is ask." I asked Karen if synchronicities had played a big part in her new life. "Oh, yes!"

My husband has been so very supportive, even when my work with Shoes for the Soul sort of took over most of our house. One day, he said, 'Here is $3,000 loan for the office/warehouse space I just found for you. I have been looking for weeks. You cannot use our house anymore. You are on your own.' The day I was signing the lease to the office, I got an email from a colleagues telling me they had a client who was in the furniture business and needed to give away all kinds of office furniture, so I got everything I needed. Shortly thereafter, I needed an office computer and a friend said I just got a new computer, do you need my old one? It is in perfect condition. This enabled me to have two computers at the office, one for me and one for a volunteer. One of my board members' dad was in the shoe business. She heard about me from a newspaper article, and told me that she had had two wishes as a little girl. One was to either marry a shoe executive like her dad or to open a children's shoe store. She came into my life when I really needed support. She also feels her life has totally changed for the better because she has found a way to give back. She had a privileged childhood in New York City. After recovering from a life-threatening illness, she was grateful to be alive. She always wanted to give back and didn't know how, and shortly thereafter we met. She constantly tells me, 'Shoes for the Soul' has changed my life.

After deciding she wanted to meet Susie Levan, the editor and publisher of Balance - Personal Growth For Women magazine, Karen had a synchronistic meeting with Levan, who also became a board member and enthusiastic supporter.

"Everyday I keep letting go of doubt and fear," says Karen. "The month I thought I couldn't pay the rent, a developer in Ft. Lauderdale gave me an unexpected gift - a check for $5,000. He is an incredible person who sees this mission. If you believe in something with all of your heart-without doubt or mistrust-it will happen. I put it out to the Universe and say, 'I really need this, and I don't doubt that it's coming.'

My goal now is to meet Susan Sarandon because she's such an activist. She is not afraid to speak for what she believes in. Another goal is speaking with Oprah. She speaks from her heart. I know I will meet her one day and be on her charity show. The goal of my board and myself is to become an international organization within a certain period of time.

Karen sees children who will probably never even have the ability to walk into a Payless or Wal-mart store. For example, shoes were given to a group of children from Haiti and the Caribbean. "We gave them gorgeous, bright colored flowered and jeweled sandals that are so in style now," she says, "You should have seen their faces. Their eyes were like saucers. One little girl, said, 'Can I take these home?' I said, "Honey, they are yours. Let's break open this bag. ' You should have seen the shoes they were wearing before-old, dirty, torn and some glued together. I was so touched by their gratitude and happiness that I went back to the office and gave them each another pair."

"We received a thank you card from a thirteen-year-old girl, who lives in a shelter, with a drawing of a shoe tied with shoelaces, and the message, "I wear my shoes to help me find some clues, to figure out my blues. Thank you for the shoes,' Love Tina. We believe that if kids receive a gift of shoes just because they need them, they, too, will learn to give. Another child wrote a card that said, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you again. Thank you for the shoes. Now when I get some shoes, I will donate some.'

How You Can Help

Karen is looking for funding, additional corporate sponsors, and shoe companies that can donate overstock. "I want to be their charity! I have a laundry list of needs. "Specifically, she could also boys and girls athletic shoes, plastic shoe bags that close with drawstrings or colorful plastic ties. "I'd love to have someone design some Angel-wing labels on which to write the child's name! Angels are universal" She also welcomes hearing from other people who might want to start chapters, in other places, or volunteers for administrative tasks.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Happy September,
Carol Adrienne