Shoes4Shelburne delivers warmth to those in need over the holidays

December 11, 2025 · 0 Comments

Written By Joshua Drakes

LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

The shoe collecting campaign collected hundreds of pairs of shoes for the community.

Every holiday season, community groups across Shelburne rally to collect food, clothing, and other essential items for families that need a little extra help to carry them through the coldest months of the holiday season. For almost a decade now, Shoes4Shelburne has been collecting shoes for donation.

Alexandra Magder, an organizer for the initiative, said that despite a smaller collection than previous years, dozens of families received quality footwear through the 2025 program.

“This year, we were around the 300 mark in terms of shoes collected, and they’ve gone to helping over 70 families in town,” she said. “It’s definitely significantly less than we’ve collected in previous years, which were closer to 1,000 pairs of shoes, but the numbers of those helped is similar to previous years.”

She said that the reason they didn’t collect as many shoes as they had in the past had less to do with a lack of donations or town spirit, but more with their new standards for accepting donations, which have become a bit more strict to make sure people were getting good, useful shoes to wear.

“This year, we did make a bit of a change in terms of the collection side,” she said. “In previous years, we always did a full month of collecting used shoes from the community, but this year, we were under a bit of a space constraint, and we have new health and safety protocols. With us being a wellness clinic, we have to be aware of the used products coming in, so there was a little bit more of a risk this year.”

Despite the new rules, the town still showed up strong for the collection. With hundreds of shoes collected and dozens of families supported, Magder said the focus was not an arbitrary collection count.

“At the end of the day, the collection drive was never the main focus,” she said. “It’s helping the individuals that receive the shoes. In the end, we were able to help just as many individuals as last year.”

This focus on giving back has been the core of Shoes4Shelburne since the initiative began. Founded by Dr. Richard Magder and Alexandra Magder from Shelburne Family Chiropractic & Wellness Centre, the origins start with Dr. Magder’s own shoes.

Nine years ago, before the initiative started, Dr. Magder’s shoes were stolen from outside his office while they were drying out in the sun. They were old and wet, and were still taken. While Magder said that her husband rightfully felt violated and confused, he came to a realization within the same moment.

“He made this comment, something like ‘If someone actually took those shoes, that were not in great shape and wet, they must have really needed them, so we can’t be mad about that,” she said. “And that’s kind of how Shoes4Shelburne took shape. We wanted to turn something negative into something positive, and help out people that maybe needed some shoes.”

While their beginnings were small, they made connections and partnerships with other initiatives around town, such as the Christmas Hamper initiative, the Shepherds Cupboard Foodbank, and Choices Youth Shelter.

Now, Shoes4Shelburne is a consistent source of support for those in need, offering a solid pair of shoes to everyone in need, an important item in everyone’s day-to-day life. In the years since it began, they have collected over 3000 shoes.

For more information on Shoes4Shelburne, go to https://www.shelburnefamilychiropractic.com/shoes4shelburne to learn more.