Scholar in Search for a Few Thousand Running Shoes

Scholar in Search for a Few Thousand Running
Shoes

By Lia Unrau

Rice News Staff

When Adam Reiser visits Kenya this summer he will carry running
shoes with him-not just the ones he plans to use for long-distance
training, but hundreds if not thousands of pairs for the people of
that African country.

A Jones College senior, Reiser is working to collect as many
athletic shoes as he possibly can by the end of June. He will then
take them to Kenya, where a pair of shoes can cost as much as one
year’s salary, but where young people love to run. Most Kenyans who
live in remote villages run barefoot; Reiser hopes to add a little
extra spring to their step when he delivers the running shoes to them
in July and August.

Where are these shoes coming from? Reiser wants yours-your old,
used ones. The sneakers that have been sitting at the back of your
closet gathering dust in the laces. He’s sure there are lots of
Kenyans who would love them.

For those who donate shoes, including a brief bio about the
original owner is optional, but Reiser thinks the Kenyans, ages about
8 to 23, who receive the shoes will appreciate knowing a little about
whose shoes they are walking-er-running in.

Having just begun collection, Reiser has gathered about 200 pairs
of shoes, but he’s going for 2,000. With collection bins around the
Rice campus, at the Rice track, and at Run Sport at 2137 Richmond
Ave., an athletic store owned by Rice alumni Jerry Fuqua ’84 and Jon
Warren ’88, Reiser thinks he can make the goal. He also plans to
target Houston-area fun-runs and local high schools.

The Class of 1997 Travel Scholarship gave rise to Reiser’s quest.

“We thought we’d like to try to give something a little
different,” said McKenzie Frost, chair of the senior committee, which
is charged with creating senior class unity and coming up with a
senior class gift. In the past the senior class has raised money for
scholarships and gifts to Fondren Library, but never money for
travel.

“The senior committee and the senior class are really excited
about providing an opportunity to someone to experience something
they otherwise would not be able to experience,” Frost said.

The committee took in about 25 applications detailing where, why
and how the proposed trip would benefit the individual and the
greater Rice community. Reiser’s idea caught their attention.

While donations were collected from Rice seniors, for the first
time two alumni, Anne Shamblin Baillio ’62 and Arthur H. Rodgers III
’67, offered to match donations with 50 cents for every dollar
donated by students. A total of $3,400 was raised for a trip that
Reiser expects to cost about $6,000. He will pay the difference
himself, he says.

Two thousand shoes could prove to be a logistical challenge-and a
monetary one. Freight charges for flying the shoes over to Kenya will
add up fast-which is why Reiser is hopeful that the freight will be
donated.

Reiser, who has visited Africa once before, can’t wait to get
back. He hopes to spend six weeks to two months there, delivering the
shoes to schools and villages in the Rift Valley area of Kenya. And
he plans to join the students in running as they try out their new
shoes.

A 5A state champion in the 3,200 meter at Bellaire High School,
Reiser is one of Rice’s star runners. But his plan to help out the
Kenyans hasn’t always met with support from fellow athletes. Some of
Houston’s top runners have complained to Reiser that he’s helping out
the competition-competition that’s already too stiff. One only has to
look to the New York and Boston marathons, and the Olympics, to see
that Kenyans are a commanding force in both men’s and women’s events.
But, Reiser laughs: “By the time the people these shoes are going to
get to competition level, these [Houston] guys will be retired.”

At the moment, Reiser has to decide whether he can fit a trip to
Israel into his summer plans to compete for the United States at an
international meet.

A political science, sociology and history major, he plans to
graduate next May, and then maybe he’ll start up a travel business
specializing in tours to Africa, he says.

“Something about it feels like home,” Reiser says of his
destination. “It is the center of life. It’s unlike any other place.”

Reiser plans to share his African experiences later this summer
via a Web site on the Internet. Check the June 26 issue of Rice News
for the Web address.

For more information about where to drop off shoes, call Reiser at
663- 6448.