By Mary Grieco
Catholic Herald correspondent
Youth collects 1,500 pair of shoes for African children
|
Andrew Bontz, a member of Immaculate Conception Parish in Rhinelander, recently collected 1,500 pair of shoes for children in Africa. Parishioners and community members helped collect the shoes. (Submitted photo) |
RHINELANDER -- Several hundred African children now have shoes to wear, thanks to the efforts of 18-year-old Andrew Bontz. While the Rhinelander High School senior was attending the interdenominational Bible Conference Camp in Indiana last summer, he heard from a missionary about the plight of children in the Congo who are dying of bacterial infections from walking barefoot in unhygienic conditions.
When he returned home, Bontz decided he could do something to help. "I spoke with the youth minister, Allen McGill (at Immaculate Conception Parish), and told him about my idea for a shoe drive, and he though it was a great idea," Bontz explained. Notices were put in the bulletin, and word quickly spread.
"After a week went by, I went to check to see if anyone had responded, and to my surprise, the entryway of the church was filled with boxes and bags of shoes from many gracious people," Bontz said. "The shoes kept coming and eventually filled up most of the church basement. I was overwhelmed."
Students from James Williams Junior High School also contributed shoes which they had collected for Make a Difference Day.
Then came the job of sorting and packing and raising money to transport over 1,500 pair of shoes. With help from religious education students, and thanks to donations to a bake sale and special collection, the project was one big step closer to a successful conclusion.
But some backbreaking work was still ahead. Bontz borrowed a truck from his employer, Rhinelander Transfer, and moved all the boxes from the church basement to the paper mill, where workers on the roll floor helped wrap the boxes in plastic and put them on pallets. "Once my dad and I got all of the boxes on three separate pallets, we weighed them, and they came to around 1,800 pounds. I was dumbfounded," he said.
Arrangements were then made with USF Holland, an LTL trucking company, to ship the shoes to a warehouse in Indiana, from where the missionary, Ken Vance, agreed to load them onto his plane and fly them to Africa.
When Bontz first agreed to go to the camp last summer, he thought he "would just sort of hang out." But it turned out to be a life-changing experience. "It definitely made me a better Christian," he said.
As he was packing the shoes, he said he tried to imagine the faces of the children when they received the shoes. He was told that when they finally get a pair of shoes they never take them off, not even when they go to sleep, for fear that they will be stolen.
Bontz said it is humbling to realize what he has done, with help from friends and family. "I just think how a small group of us has maybe saved so many kids' lives."
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2001