Saving 'soles' becomes student's Lenten mission BY ERIN O. STATTEL Staff Writer Photos of children walking shoeless inspired Erin McNamara to organize a shoe collection drive for youngsters living in the Republic of the Marshall islands. HOLMDEL - Saving soles has never been so easy. Erin McNamara, 14, is collecting lightly used shoes fromthe children of St. Benedict School and church to send to the children of Ebeye, a town in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. "It is the simplest thing to do," McNamara said. "All I ask is that the shoes are lightly used and I will take them." McNamara, a freshman at St. JohnVianney High School, decided to collect shoes after seeing photographs of childrenwithout shoes trudging through garbage in theMarshall Islands. McNamara's cousin, Conor Dirks, is a teacher withWorld Teach and is participating in a yearlong program with the Peace Corps. Dirks and another relative ofMcNamara's sent the photographs home to New Jersey. "They have poor garbage disposal in the Marshall Islands," McNamara said. "It just got to me when I saw the children walking barefoot through the garbage, getting their feet infected." After seeing the photos, McNamara knewwhat to call her Lenten service project - "Save a Sole for Lent." McNamara set up collection bins at St. Benedict School and church on Bethany Road inHolmdel after giving a presentation to PrincipalMary Ellen Lilly. "I went to school at St. Benedict and I went back to see if they would letme do this project for Lent," McNamara said. "Miss Lilly liked the idea so she letme present the idea to students during their lunchtime." Word spread to the church and McNamara placed a collection bin in the gathering place in the church and has been collecting shoes ever since. So far, 324 pairs of shoes have been collected. Children's sizes are requested because there are so many children in need, and the adults are smaller in stature. "I am asking people to donate nice shoes as well as sneakers," McNamara said. "The people down there like to get dressed up for Mass, so dress shoes would be nice too." "We should help because we know how much they are suffering,"McNamara said of the children in Ebeye. "There is no hospital there; it has been shut down." According to the United States Embassy for the Republic of theMarshall IslandsWeb site, theMarshall Islands are located in the Central Pacific Ocean and are named for British Naval Capt. JohnMarshall, who arrived in the region in 1788. The islandswere occupied byAllied Forces at the end ofWorld War II and became the nuclear testing site for the U.S. military in 1946.