Throughout the month of December, the Class of 2028 officers are partnering with GotSneakers, an organization which buys and then distributes used sneakers from donors. The student officers have put bins for donation by the flag lobby, senior parking lot entrance, and the bell lobby and will be collecting used sneakers until Dec. 20.
The sneakers donated to GotSneakers are given to the organization by shipping it to their facility. Every pair is then rated on condition and quality. The organization continues to buy each pair of sneakers for anywhere between $1 and $7 ($1 for shoes in poorer condition, $7 for shoes in better condition). GotSneakers then distributes donated shoes to those in need.
After Dec. 20, the officers will ship the shoes to GotSneakers during the winter break and will redeem the money raised from the shoes to use for class events.
“We would mainly put [the money] to our end of year field trip. That’s our biggest event we need to spend money on. So we’re just collecting all the money for that,” treasurer Abhi Vuppuluri said.
Although the fundraiser has not been done at Westford Academy before, once they found GotSneakers, both the class officers and advisors agreed that this fundraiser would be mutually beneficial to them as a way to raise money for the Class of 2028, as well as a convenient way to make a positive impact on people who need basic necessities such as shoes.
“[We found GotSneakers] through the course of searching of how to fundraise and make some money and do some good,” Class of 2028 adviser Christopher Bramanti said.
The process of working with GotSneakers was fairly straightforward. The officers simply signed up to host a fundraiser for the organization, and were then given sneaker recycling bags, which the sneakers are to be put in before shipping, as well as shipping labels to return all the sneakers collected.
While putting together the fundraiser, the officers had to figure out the best way to make the boxes as accessible and known as possible to Westford Academy’s students and staff.
“People don’t really listen to the announcements, so we tried Instagram, and Google Classroom, and then we sent out [an] email,” president Alicia Kurnianto said.
After advertising a couple of different ways, they are hoping that they will get an increase in donations.
“We’ve done a good job promoting it, but we haven’t got any donations yet,” Bramanti said.
With December break fast approaching, the officers and advisors hope to gather as many pairs of sneakers as possible before the deadline.
