Last Chance: Give Your Old Shoes New Purpose

Think about this: Do you have old shoes that you really should get rid of?

Believe it or not, there's someone who wants them, so you should help your old shoes cut a new path in life—either for a needy person, or as fertilizer.

Pick through your closets tonight, and bag up the shoes that are old, out-of-style, worn out, too small, or missing their mates and take them to either or the .

Get them there by Thursday, and the young people who are members of the police Explorers group will get some money to put toward their upcoming trip to Colorado, said Officer Keith Ketterman, leader of the Pikesville group.

Some of the donated pairs will be fixed up and given to the needy, but others will be ground up and used for fertilizer, he said.

The precinct has already collected several truckloads of shoes, Ketterman said.

At 1 p.m. Thursday, Explorers and Ketterman are heading to Fleet Feet where they will combine their old treads with the ones collected at Fleet Feet.

And Pikesville Patch plans to be there to get some photos.

The Explorers are made up of young, ambitious people ages 14-21 who are members of the Baltimore County Police Explorer Program.

Police-mentored groups from the Pikesville and Franklin precincts hope to attend a conference this summer that's important to each Explorer's development in law enforcement: The National Law Enforcement Exploring Conference.

There they will learn more law enforcement skills and compete against thousands of other Explorers from throughout the U.S.

The Explorers are doing a lot of fundraisers and work to pay for this conference—from collecting old shoes to bowling events and selling discount cards. Let's show our support, and turn in those old shoes!