4,000 Pairs of Shoes Collected for Kids

Some children in Mexico stay home from school because they are not permitted to attend class without shoes.

Some students at Camarillo High School decided to change that.

The 118-member Interact Club sponsored Zapatos for the Kids, a shoe drive at the Mission Oaks Boulevard campus. The effort, which the students themselves initiated, last month yielded more than 4,000 pairs of shoes for needy children in Mexico, said Norma Cazares, a junior at Camarillo High and president of the Interact Club.

Members of the club, which provides students with opportunities for community service, worked during the summer preparing to launch the shoe drive at the beginning of the fall semester. The club’s focus for the current school year will be on service to children, the homeless and animals.

The effort was undertaken with the help of the Camarillo Noontime Rotary Club, whose president-elect, Alice Madrid, will deliver the shoes to needy children during a Rotary International conference in Mexico. Al Lowe, president of the Rotary Club, donated the truck to transport the shoes.

Senior Shannon San Nicolas said she was too embarrassed at first to bring dozens of pairs of shoes from her own closet and those of her friends and family, but mustered the courage last Thursday as the shoe drive was coming to an end.

“I cleaned out everyone’s closet,” said Shannon, 17. “I thought, ‘Man, we have a lot of shoes.’ ”