Moorestown’s Home and School Association are collecting shoes in a fundraising effort to benefit pediatric cancer research.
Joanne Carruthers said most kids quickly grow out of their shoes. Moorestown’s Home and School Association is encouraging students and parents to take their used shoes and give them a new life through its final Community Service project of the year titled “Dunk Your Kicks.”
Throughout May and June, Home and School will collect used sneakers in all sizes to raise money for the Max Cure Foundation, which advocates and funds research for childhood cancer. Carruthers, the district community service chair for Home and School, said collected shoes are sent to Rethink Nation, an international recycler who sells the sneakers to distributors who send the sneakers to emerging market countries, and for each pair of sneakers in good shape, Rethink Nation will pay $1 with those funds in turn going to Max Cure.
A Max Cure box will be placed in the main office of each of the six schools in the district where parents or students can drop off their gently used sneakers.
“Instead of them sitting in your closet, you can benefit someone in another country that would be appreciative of those shoes,” Carruthers said.
The previous community service chair brought the fundraiser to Moorestown, Carruthers said. The chair at the time had learned about Max Cure’s “Dunk Your Kicks” initiative from a friend in Basking Ridge and wanted to bring the fundraiser to Moorestown.
Carruthers said the Max Cure foundation is a special organization. When the Plotkin family’s son Max was diagnosed at age 4 with a rare form of stage four, B Cell Lymphoma, they witnessed firsthand the lack of funding going toward childhood cancer research. After undergoing two years of chemotherapy treatments, Max was cancer-free, but the Plotkins wanted to do more to support childhood cancer research. So, they established the Max Cure Fund to create an immune cell lab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Carruthers said they noticed the money to treat a child with cancer put a “huge financial strain” on the families.
“Treatment puts 12 percent of families into poverty,” Carruthers said.
Today, the Max Cure Foundation provides financial support to low-income and military families affected by childhood cancer and advocates for legislative changes to benefit children with pediatric cancer.
Carruthers said Home and School does not have a set fundraising goal in mind for “Dunk Your Kicks.”
“We hope for the best, and Moorestown usually comes through,” Carruthers said. “Moorestown is very generous and involved.”
Moorestown Memorial High School and South Valley Elementary School will collect sneakers the week of May 14. William Allen Middle School, the Upper Elementary School and George C. Baker Elementary School will collect shoes the week of June 4. Mary E. Roberts Elementary School will collect the week of June 11.
To find out more about Max Cure, visit https://maxcurefoundation.org.
