Bowling Green State University is going for the record at this week’s football game,
but not in touchdowns or field goals. The university is trying to collect
thousands of used sneakers to create the world’s longest chain of shoes tied
together.
Everyone is being encouraged to donate their unwanted, untied athletic shoes to
Saturday’s game against Eastern Michigan and drop them in bins, or to the
Bowen-Thompson Student Union all week. A bin is located by the large stairway
near the bookstore.
More than possibly earning BGSU a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, the
athletic shoes collected will be recycled into basketball courts.
The university is partnering with Erek Hansen of Curtice, a 12-year-old environmental
champion known as EcoErek ,who has been featured in National Geographic Kids and
other national media. He received honorable mention from Action For Nature as
part of its International Eco-Hero Award.
BGSU has collaborated with EcoErek previously to donate jeans and shoes from the
university’s "When You Move Out, Don’t Throw It Out" annual
collection, and again last summer for its financial literacy camp for
middle-schoolers. The campers worked with EcoErek to develop their own strategy
for collecting used blue jeans and tennis shoes. The denim is converted into
insulation for Habitat for Humanity houses and the shoes are recycled into
components of sidewalks, running tracks and playgrounds.