By Tyler Dahlgren

Dr. Dee Acklie watched in awe as lightly-worn clothing items formed mountains on two cafeteria tables inside DC West Elementary School.

Acklie is by no means tall, standing five-foot-three, but she soon found herself relying on tippy toes to see over the top of either peak. The nearby shoe rack was already jam-packed with all types of sneakers and donations were coming in by the barrel.

It was August 1st, day one of 10 in the DC West Shoe Drive, and Acklie and her team were giving everything they had just to keep up.

“Talk about a good problem to have,” Acklie said. “I think we even overwhelmed the principals a little bit.”

Acklie is new to the district, which sits just west of Omaha in Valley and serves students from several surrounding communities. She was approached this summer by 6th-grade teacher Sara Horstman, who’s been a part of several charitable projects throughout her five years with the district. Horstman, who is working towards her educational leadership degree, had something special in mind to kick-start the school year, pun intended.

“Our goal was to do something that provided support to our families,” Horstman said. “I pitched it to Dee, and we just ran with it.”

They weren’t running alone. Not for very long, anyways.

“When word got out, several teachers jumped right on board and said ‘I know there’s a need in this area, so I really want to help,’” Acklie said. “It was well-received at all levels.”

There were five designated drop zones within a 15-mile radius. In addition to DC West Elementary, gently used shoes and clothing items were accepted at Twin Rivers YMCA, Valley Public Library, Lifestyle Fitness in Waterloo, Kiddie Academy of Elkhorn and OrthoNebraska.

“We pull from a lot of different communities,” Horstman said. “We have kids who come in from Yutan, LeShara, King Lake, Elkhorn and even Omaha, so we wanted to promote this beyond Valley and Waterloo. All the businesses we worked with were so eager to help.”

It didn’t take long for the shoe drive to make the rounds on social media. From there, the project took off.

“Everybody who donated or reached out to help was really excited,” Horstman added. “You could just hear the passion behind their enthusiasm.”

The donations, which are still coming in a month later, were sorted and distributed to students in need. Horstman and Acklie received an assist from ELL teacher Ms. Alyssa Lindahl’s sophomore Keystone students, who gave their time both sorting and finding the items a new home.

“Those Keystone kiddos were awesome,” said Acklie. “They were bagging clothes up and tucking the bags into the lockers of classmates they knew might need it. It was cool to see.”

Acklie, who volunteers her time taking clothing to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was admittedly surprised by the heartwarming results. Whenever she’d feel overwhelmed, however, all she needed to do was look up.

“There’d always be somebody right next to you, working,” she said. “I had one day where I put 17,000 steps on just trying to get these clothes out. It was exhausting, but invigorating at the same time.”

Lindahl, Acklie said, was an amazing collaborator in the project, even arranging for the district’s immigrant families to visit the donation center. For Acklie, the district’s new family facilitator, those visits made for invaluable encounters with the families she’ll be working with this year.

“It really worked as a bridge to those families for me,” she said. “Some have already reached out with other needs. That connection is really important.”

The quality of clothing was amazing, too. Acklie vowed to only display items she would feel comfortable putting on her own children, and nearly every single item donated landed in that category.

“It’s been fun to watch the little girls come in wearing their first day of school dresses and the little boys in their cool new shoes,” Acklie said. “They’re very proud of that, that they have nice things just like their friends have. I had moms hugging me saying ‘Thank you. You have no idea what this means.’”

DC West is situated in the “Land of Lakes”, an affluent area with several gated communities built around sand-pit lakes, but the district serves students on both ends of the poverty line.

“This project was really important to those people,” said Horstman. “They really cherish those kinds of things, the nice clothes and shoes, because they don’t come around every day for those kids.”

The shoe drive, Horstman detailed, is a testament to the power of community. Moving forward, DC West plans to engage with theirs on similar projects.

“The need for help is there, and the want to help is there,” she said. “They love helping kids. They love helping the same people that they’re around day-in and day-out, just like we are.”

Ms. Lindahl's Keystone Volunteers included: Jamison Badje, Will Bergsten, Zipp Breazeale, Lexi File, Ava Grimm, Stella Higginson, Brody Hillyer, Aspen Huber, Eli Johnson, Cam'ron Schmidt, Brody Walsh and Carliyonna Worlds.