Three cross-country athletes are lacing up for a cause, donating their shoes in the hopes no one goes without a pair.
In collaboration with the Varsity Leadership Council (VLC), the Queen’s Cross-Country (XC) & Track team is holding the second iteration of a running shoe drive for the local Kingston community as part of the ReRUN Shoe Project. Between Feb. 26 and 28 from 12 to 3 p.m., students and community can head over to the ARC to donate their lightly used running shoes. All shoes will be donated to BGC South East, formerly
known as the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston & Area—an organization which provides youth with ive spaces and skill-building activities, including physical activities.
ReRUN was co-founded in June 2016 by cross-country Canadian Olympian and current Queen’s Athlete Services Coordinator Julie-Anne Staehli, MSc ’19, alongside Kurtis Marlow, at a Kingston road race.
The Journal interviewed the drive’s organizers, Caleigh Pribaz, Kin ’26, and vice-president of Indigenization – equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and accessibility at VLC, along with Olivia Hendrikx, MD ’27, and Kara Parkins, Kin ’25, all of whom are Cross-Country (XC) & Track team athletes and of VLC. Speaking on behalf of Queen’s students athletes, VLC aims to promote a positive image of Queen’s Athletics. The three athletes detailed the history of the drive and their hopes for the year.
Pribaz and Parkins began exploring ways to donate their running shoes while ing the local community last year and, they discovered ReRuN through Staehli and then organized their first drive last April.
Pribaz explained runners can burn through a pair of shoes in as little as a month and a half.
“When you run in your shoes for so many kilometres, they kind of wear out. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t still wear them for walking around or playing sports,” she said.
The drive’s goal is not only providing shoes locally but also fostering community involvement and making running more accessible by removing the cost barrier for quality footwear.
In an interview with The Journal, Staehli re-called the history behind her co-founding ReRUN.
“The idea is that the shoes are going directly back into that local community,” she said. “I think a lot of the times we see it [shoes] as physical activity, sports participation, but you just need shoes to be able to participate in life.”
While the project doesn’t have a specific target for the number of shoe donations it hopes to receieve, ReRUN has donated over 5,800 pairs of shoes since June 2016.
Staehli explained her main goal going forward is to create a more “formal structure” for the project by turning it into a nationally recognized organization.
The shoe drive is accepting donations until Feb. 28 at 3 p.m.
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