Share Your Soles founder loses ‘everything’ in Worth blaze
BY DONNA VICKROY dvickroy@southtownstar.com January 31, 2012 8:17AM
Mona Purdy, founder of the Share Your Soles nonprofit, gets a hug after she walked through her Worth apartment on Tuesday. A fire was started on Monday night by a faulty lamp. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media
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Checks can be made out to Mona Purdy and sent to Share Your Soles, 5623 W. 115th St., Alsip, IL 60803. For more information, call (708) 448-4469.
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Updated: March 2, 2012 8:10AM
The woman who has delivered 1.5 million pairs of shoes to needy people in distressed areas around the world found herself without so much as a pair of slippers Monday night after a fire destroyed her Worth apartment.
Mona Purdy, founder and CEO of Share Your Soles nonprofit, was lying in bed, watching a rerun of “Law & Order” on her laptop when she heard what sounded like a “click” in another room.
Then the lights flickered.
“I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I don’t have any lights on,’ ” she said.
Purdy said she got out of bed and headed for the kitchen, thinking perhaps someone was breaking in. That’s when she noticed the back of the sofa was ablaze.
“It was like a bonfire,” she said.
She tried to smother it with pillows, but the flames singed her hair and eyebrows. She also tried to pull an expensive Haitian painting from the wall but couldn’t get it loose.
“The whole time, I was screaming, ‘Help, fire,’ ” she said.
But she was hoarse thanks to a virus she’d picked up in Tijuana, Mexico, last week while handing out shoes to needy people.
“No one could hear me, so I just started banging on doors,” she said.
She was especially concerned about her next-door neighbor who is hard of hearing, and about a baby living on the first floor.
“Everyone got out safe,” she said. “Thank God.”
North Palos Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Rocky Carlson said Tuesday the fire apparently was caused by an electrical short in a lamp in Purdy’s living room. Carlson said no one was injured in the blaze but that one resident had to be assisted down the stairs during the evacuation.
The fire broke out after 9 p.m. in the four-unit building in the 6900 block of West 111th Place. Carlson said it took firefighters about 20 minutes to extinguish it.
The property is owned by John Drexler, who said Tuesday that once the investigation is complete and insurance work finished, he plans to rebuild.
Purdy, who fled the building wearing only a nightgown, called the experience surreal.
“I’m usually the one helping people in situations like this,” she said. “Now I know what that feels like.”
Since 1999, the mother of three has been collecting and distributing new and gently used shoes to needy people around the world. She recently returned from Mexico and had plans to accompany deliveries to Haiti and Uganda in the coming months.
Purdy also is a runner who ran in her first Bank of America Chicago Marathon last fall to raise money for her Alsip-based charity, Share Your Soles. She already is registering runners to participate in this year’s race on behalf of the nonprofit.
Purdy said she did not lose any of the records associated with Share Your Soles, but she lost nearly all of her personal belongings, including her wallet, clothes, furniture and the newly written book she was editing on her laptop.
She also lost two pairs of newly purchased running shoes.
“I was telling friends that I have looked into the faces of people who have nothing; I know that look,” she said. “And now I am one of those people.”
One thing that did survive the fire was her cell phone, which she said was surprising since its protective case had melted.
“We just peeled off the case and turned it on,” she said.
Purdy, who says she did not have renter’s insurance, had moved into the apartment six months ago. She is staying at a local hotel.
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