Vickroy: Lockport girl collects shoes for Haiti kids
DONNA VICKROY dvickroy@southtownstar.com | (708) 633-5982 December 23, 2011 11:12PM
Calei Clark, 6, of Lockport, with the hundreds of pairs of shoes she has helped collect for shipment to Haiti. | Brett Roseman~Sun-Times Media
Calei’s cause
New and used shoes can be dropped off at:
Lemont Montessori School, 16427 W. 135th St., Lemont, (815) 834-0607
Marchio Tile & Carpet,
910 S. State St., Lockport,
(815) 838-6050
QRS Inc., 900 S. State St.,
Lockport, (815) 328-1099
For more information
on items John Shattuck
is collecting, call
(855) 737-1212, Ext. 804,
or email
John.Shattuck@SDRLIVE.com
Article Extras
Updated: January 26, 2012 8:04AM
Calei Clark has a heart as big as Santa’s.
After learning about Haiti in homeschool, the 6-year-old asked her mom if there was a way to help.
A few weeks later, she had hundreds of pairs of shoes lined up in her basement.
“I should warn you, it’s kind of stinky down there,” Calei said when I visited her Lockport home last week.
Calei and her mom, Jeni Clark, had organized the donated shoes into sections: girls, boys, men’s, women’s. Once the sandals, tennis shoes and ballerina flats have been tagged, bolted together so left stays with right, they will be placed in boxes and shipped to Haiti.
“The beauty of homeschool is that you can look deeper into subjects that interest a child,” Jeni said.
After Calei’s initial geography lesson on the tropical country, she and her daughter watched a three-hour documentary about Haiti.
“It said that the kids had no shoes, they had to go to school and to church without shoes,” Calei said. “I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, we have to help.’ ”
So she tapped her mom’s email and Facebook contacts and went on her dad’s Joliet radio show to get out the word that she was collecting new and used shoes.
Kevin T. (“The ‘T’ is for ‘terrific,’ ” Calei said) Clark owns QRS Inc. in Lockport and hosts The Quintessential Mix radio show on WJOL-AM (1340). Calei went on the air and briefly explained her mission. And then the deluge began.
People dropped off shoes at designated sites, including the radio station, Lemont Montessori School and Marchio Tile in Lockport.
“Every time we left the house, we returned to find more shoes on the porch,” Jeni said.
Jeni was panicking over how to transport the footwear to the Caribbean when she awoke one Sunday morning and opened her newspaper to find a column I’d written about John Shattuck.
The Frankfort resident has devoted much of the past decade to helping Haiti’s poorest children. He has made multiple trips to the island, delivering more than
$16 million in aid.
The Dec. 11 article doubled as a plea to local residents to help Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos, an international nonprofit that cares for orphaned and abandoned children in nine Latin American countries, in their mission to supply health care, education and some quality of life to Haiti’s burgeoning orphan population.
He’s asking for donations of tools, office supplies, musical instruments and, well, just about anything, as he prepares to ship his 22nd cargo container of goods in January.
“I saw that story and called him immediately,” Jeni said.
Within days, Shattuck visited the Clarks, delivering boxes to Calei’s house and showing mother and daughter how to first tag the pairs so the shoes stay together, and then box them up.
Shattuck said the little girl’s timing was impeccable.
“I had just heard from (a contact) in Haiti that they had a desperate need for shoes,” he said. “And then Jeni called.”
“This is a good cause,” Calei said. “Those children are helpless. They go to abandoned houses and through dumps looking for food. They walk through dumps without shoes.”
In Haiti, the average life expectancy is 43; the average education is a third-grade level.
Shattuck has partnered with Artists for Peace and Justice to build and supply a high school, music school and technical school in Haiti.
Jeni said her daughter was born with a big heart.
“When she was 3, she told me that she was going to save the world,” Jeni said. “I thought, ‘Who is this kid?’ ”
Calei has a child modeling/acting contract. She donated her first commercial check to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She also likes to support TLC Animal Shelter in Homer Glen, her mother said.
“I’m beyond proud of her,” Jeni said. “She’s a very cool kid.”
Indeed. But just to prove she’s also got a lot in common with other little girls her age, Calei wanted me to know that she takes piano lessons, enjoys gymnastics and absolutely loves her American Girl and Barbie dolls.
“One last thing,” she said, as I was preparing to leave, “Please say thanks to everybody for helping me.”
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