Photo Provided The Junior Women’s Club of Barnesville recently collected new and slightly used shoes for the Soles4Souls project. The club collected 271 pairs of shoes for all ages.

BARNESVILLE — It’s hard to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes — especially if they don’t have any.

But people in need of shoes and clothing can be thankful today for the Junior Women’s Club of Barnesville, which recently collected new and slightly used shoes for the Soles4Souls project. The club collected 271 pairs of shoes for all ages.

The club posted on its Facebook page: “When people lack the resources to get through today, it’s difficult for them to focus on tomorrow. Soles4Souls turns shoes and clothing into opportunities for education and employment so they can have a more hopeful future.”

Soles4Souls is an international nonprofit organization that collects shoes and clothing items for people in need. Its main goal is to help people have suitable clothing to further their education or career. The organization has locations in the United States, Canada and Europe.

This is the women’s club’s second year collecting shoes for the organization. Last year the Junior Women’s Club of Barnesville worked with Bill Gosset, owner of Cobbler John’s Shoe Repair in Marietta, Ohio. Gosset has worked with Soles4Souls for nine years and provides free shoes for anyone in need. Gosset said purchasing the shop equipment from the closed Joe Campeti’s General Hospital for Shoes in Wheeling helped him have the resources to give back to the community.

Gosset also repurposes old steel-toe shoes and donates them to Ohio prisoners who are returning to the workforce.

Soles4Souls has collected over 83,000,000 pairs of shoes and articles of clothing this year. The shoes will be donated on Nov. 28. For more information about Soles4Souls, visit soles4souls.org. Anyone can make a monetary donation on the organization’s website.

Anyone in need of shoes can request them on the Soles4Souls website by filling out a brief form.

The Junior Women’s Club of Barnesville’s Domestic Violence Awareness Committee also donated personal care and hygiene items at the end of October in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The club collected items all year to deliver to the Tri-County Help Center. This year the club filled 16 purses full of items.

The club posted on its Facebook page: “They were very appreciative to receive the packaged purses. What a wonderful way to offer a gesture of kindness to the women struggling with domestic violence that passes through the center’s doors. Each purse had a special message of encouragement.”

According to a press release from the club, “JWC is a not-for-profit General Federation of Women’s Clubs affiliate, which is a social group for women who are the hearts of not only of the Federation and Ohio GFWC, but the community of Barnesville.”

GFWC Ohio was organized in 1894 in Springfield, Ohio, and was admitted to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs later that year.

The Junior Women’s Club of Barnesville holds a social gathering at 5:30 p.m. with the meeting at 6 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at the Barnesville Library Annex from September to May. Due to the Christmas holiday, the next meeting will be held Dec. 13 – the second Wednesday of the month. For more information, visit the Junior Women’s Club of Barnesville Facebook page or call 740-619-0015.