The Choices We Make

A small boy washes his shoes. (Photo by brookesb, Flickr)

As citizens of the world, we all have to recognize our social responsibility. It doesn’t always take an act of congress to make a difference. Sometimes we can work an ordinary miracle by raising our voice or by downloading a song.

When a tsunami struck Southeast Asia, we all watched in horror as families literally had everything they owned stripped from them. When Wayne Elsey, founder of Soles4Souls Inc., saw those reports, he noticed a single shoe wash up on the beach and realized he could make a difference.

Billy Gilman

Elsey contacted executives in the footwear industry, and together they donated a quarter of a million shoes to individuals in the affected countries. They repeated this effort when Hurricane Katrina struck a few months later, this time sending over a million pairs of shoes to the gulf coast.

Recently, country musician Billy Gillman teamed up with Soles4Souls and 18 country music superstars to help deliver more shoes to kids around the world who don’t have any. They recorded “The Choice,” an inspiring call-to-action song that will ultimately provide a pair of shoes to a child for every single that is digitally downloaded.

I’m not a huge country music fan, but I do love this song and the message it spreads. I also love knowing that by downloading this beautiful tune I’m playing a small part in a greater cause. Half the people in the world don’t own shoes, and half of those people are children.

Download “The Choice” today and I promise that the next time you slip on your shoes, you won’t take them for granted.