By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – The 13th annual OSF St. Joseph Medical Center shoe drive to benefit Home Sweet Home Ministries was yet another success this year.

The hospital collected 3,361 pounds of shoes between Aug. 7 and Aug. 16. OSF President Char Boore said that’s over a 50 percent increase over 2014.

“When we started this it didn’t take long for both the employees at the hospital, as well as the community to respond positively,” said Boore. “Every year we think we’ve hit a new high and the fact that we’re able to gather more each year, it’s just really amazing.”

Home Sweet Home CEO Mary Ann Pullin said the donation is “wonderful.”

“We can never get enough shoes, believe it or not,” said Pullin. “These shoes are going to be put to good purpose.”

The shoes will be sold at a low price at Home Sweet Home’s Mission Marts in Bloomington and Lincoln.

Boore added the response from the community every year is “overwhelming.”

“We had this day care show up and they’ve done their own drive now for a couple of years,” said Boore. “Last year, when we were doing a drive through collection, we had a few different groups of employees from State Farm who were essentially conducting their own drives within their facility to bring over to us.”

Over the past 13 years OSF has donated over 19,000 pairs of shoes to Home Sweet Home.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].