Show your soul by sharing your used soles

A press release with the headline "Give Us Your Sole" is definitely worth a second look.

So, following that line of thinking, it's worth a second thought about helping out a new South Elgin Lions Club environmental program.

Through Thursday the club is collecting old gym shoes with rubber soles.

Their condition or size doesn't matter because they'll be ground up and turned into playing surfaces, indoor tracks or fields, such as AstroPlay synthetic grass for sports arenas.

Lions Club members hope residents will see this collection as a good alternative for shoes that are too worn out to be sold at a garage sale, used as hand-me-downs or be donated to charity.

"It's a good thing to do. They're taking the shoes that are donated and grinding them up. We're not looking for a particular size," said Paul Groth, South Elgin Lions Club second vice president.

"It's a way to reuse something people would have thrown out. It makes sense to do it."

Five South Elgin collection points have been set up: Willard Elementary School, 370 W. Spring St.; Fox Meadow Elementary School, 1275 Jenna Drive; Otter Creek Elementary School, 2701 Hopps Road; Kenyon Woods Middle School, 1515 Raymond St.; or the South Elgin Lions Club office, 500 Fulton Ave.

Whether the club participates next year in the pilot program has not been determined.

If it does, Groth believes the date should be pushed back to June 2009.

That way, he reasoned, the high schools could donate shoes that are left behind by students instead of pitching them.

For more information, call (847) 888-9575.