Girls' Night With A Purpose: Sole Hope

I recently attended a much needed girls' night out, but it was with a purpose! My dear friend, Jen, hosted the event and introduced us to an awesome organization called Sole Hope. I'll let them explain who they are, as shared on their website:

We Are Sole Hope. A group of passionate, committed people who are putting closed toed shoes on African children, one pair at a time. It all started with a chance encounter with a YouTube video--a video that broke our hearts, took us WAY out of our comfort zones, and lead us to Uganda and Zambia.

Along the way, we realized we could not only help African children, but we could help African men and women by teaching them a simple trade—how to make shoes. And so we began. Then we realized we could teach others—homeless, unemployed, recovering addicts, and nonprofits—how to make shoes, so they could earn a decent living and raise funds for their causes. So Sole Hope is touching lives in the U.S. and Africa, and we’re only getting started!

We began in chaos; we now have a plan, a vision, and core values. We also have an amazing team, high-energy, crazy folks that love God, people, fun, and saving the world.

Jen organized the gals to come over, eat delicious food, sip wine and cut out the fabric pieces for shoes. How awesome is that? We were able to cut out 7 shoes between the 8 of us, which will be made into shoes for toddlers and children (we were given patterns for size 4 and size 13 shoes). Sole Hope does an awesome thing on their website; they let you order a shoe cutting party kit so you can host a purposeful event, too! I encourage you to go visit them at solehope.org and see what they're all about. Maybe even consider hosting your own party! 

Our hostess, on the right

Wine and pattern cutting totally mix. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 

Our finished sets! Aren't those fun prints? I chose to use the brown dots on aqua. Anyone surprised by that? We cut each pattern out twice per set, once out of a cotton print and once out of denim from old jeans. The plastic piece is the heel support and they were cut from old milk jugs. I was told the soles will be made from recycled tires. How clever!

This last picture shows what the shoes look like once they're assembled. Can I just say that I kind of want a pair for myself and a pair for lil' punkin?

Now, what are you waiting for, go visit Sole Hope! And, if you host a shoe cutting party, I want to hear all about it!