Hundreds of Westborough Shoes Heading to Haiti

Hundreds of new and gently used shoes donated in Westborough are being shipped to needy children in Haiti this week, thanks to 7-year-old second grader Michael Fisher.

“I wanted to do an act of kindness like the elves.” Michael told Westborough Patch, referring to the classic Grimm Brothers fairy tale The Elves and the Shoemaker.

Michael read the book as part of a project on fairy tales that his teacher, Mara Power, assigned to his class. The project required each student to read a fairy tale and create a project to go with it.

“He told me that he wanted to collect shoes,” said Michael’s mom, Marion Fisher. “He’s very empathetic. He’s a sweetheart…He was sad when he learned that there were kids who don’t get shoes to go to school.”

When Michael suggested the project, Marion knew who to call for more information. “My mother knows everyone,” she laughed. Her mother, Mary Culhane of Westborough, had a suggestion.

Culhane told Michael about her friend Pam Reidy, president of Spirit of Hope in Worcester. According to the group’s website, Spirit of Hope is a nonprofit, “interfaith, charitable, educational and spiritual organization…[which] provides financial resources to enable people to work temporarily or permanently in Haiti.”

Michael and his family contacted Reidy and she told them of children at an orphanage in Haiti who would welcome the shoes. Reidy offered to come to Michael’s classroom and share information and photos about the Haitian children with his classmates.

“I am very proud of him to take on a project on a global scale,” said Power. “Having the speaker in class was a big part of this project.”

Power said that, after Reidy spoke to the class, a letter went home to all of the school families which explained the shoe collection.

Michael hand-decorated a large donation box that he put in the lobby of the school. The box filled. “We emptied it a few times already, and it’s a pretty big box,” said Marion. “We were surprised by how many shoes there were. I think having Pam Reidy speak to the class made a big impression. The kids had a chance to see how the kids in Haiti live.”

Just before April vacation week, Michael sat on the floor in his grandmother’s home on West Main Street and demonstrated how he clustered the shoes with a rubber band. “I put them together in pairs and then they go in the duffle bag,” he said.

A large maroon duffle bag sat in the middle of the room. It did not seem large enough for the many pairs of shoes surrounding Michael.

“Only 50 pounds of shoes can be taken on this trip. Any shoes left over will make the next trip to Haiti,” Culhane said.

The shoes were taken to a group of Gardner high school students who were preparing to visit Haiti this week. The students will deliver the shoes to an orphanage run by the Sisters of Notre Dame.

“They don’t have enough money for shoes,” said Michael. “The moral of the story is to return an act of kindness. That’s what I want to do with the shoes. I want to be like the elves.”

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