AMBOY – The Amboy Leos Club has been part of many programs and community assistance programs over the last few school years.

One of the most successful has been collecting old shoes for gotsneakers?, an organization in part of the Sneaker Recycling Program and the Lions of Illinois Foundation.

Last year, Amboy collected 12 trash bags full of nearly 400 pounds of shoes to take to DeKalb, the main collecting point.

This year the Amboy Leos Club and the Amboy Lions Club want to surpass the number of pounds as anyone can bring shoes to the Amboy High School main office. All you have to do is ties the laces together, put them in a bag and drop them off at the desk.

Shoes will be collected through May.

“I think it’s really great and the Leos are really passionate about it,” said Micah Miller, a AHS junior who is the president of the Leos. “All of our members are going through their houses and finding all of their old shoes they don’t wear anymore. I’m still looking through my closet.

“At first, I didn’t really understand the importance of helping out the community. Now, that’s all I do with different organizations such as National Honors Society, AHS Student Council, and the Leos Club. All of the organizations are built on advancing the community,

“It’s great to make connections in the community because it can help you out in the long run with scholarships and it gets your name out there. Last year, my cousin Elizabeth Clarida was the Amboy Leos president, and she really pushed the Sneaker Recycling Campaign. It was her who was the driving force of getting 400 pounds of shoes last year.

“Now, I’m trying to push to do the same thing.”

The state of Illinois was just shy of six tons of shoes in February and was over 12,000 pounds in April.

The old shoe collecting initiative is centered around Earth Day, April 22.

“We got the Amboy Leos club really going again last year. It had started to break down, but now we have some good officers,” said Amboy Lions’ Jim Travi. “Micah was one of them last year and this year. Cynthia Carlson is the advisor at Amboy High School. She’s doing a fantastic job staying on top of stuff. The Leos Club have run numerous programs and they’re involved in the community. It gives the kids a chance to give back to the community.

“Without a program like this, the tennis shoes go into landfills. They fill up landfills and that’s a lot of weight and space taken by shoes. Now, they’re being recycled. The good shoes are given to people who need them. Shoes that are broken down, the material is recycled.

“Any kind of recycling, I think it’s a fantastic program.”

AHS has 30 students in the Leos Club and they have participated in a hat, coat, gloves, blanket drive for Teen Turf, helped with the Teen Turf Halloween Dance, Candy Day, Rose Day, and the Cliff Walter Easter Egg Hunt.