Tate Moeller and Hazen Parry were close to Alex Escabi. After he died in December, the two juniors wanted to find a way to honor their late friend.

Escabi loved shoes, so Moeller and Parry decided to initiate a shoe donation organization, “Soles for Alex,” to send new and lightly used shoes to local charities and foster homes.

“I started the shoe drive as a way for me to share Alex’s memory and spirit with our community and show his family how many people in our community support Alex,” Moeller said.

Despite their charitable efforts, there have been challenges to getting their organization up and running.

Parry said the biggest challenge was getting the word out about the shoe drive to more people because he is a virtual student.

Moeller had his mother put the donation information on several Facebook pages, and both his mother and father reached out to co-workers and friends asking if they could contribute to the shoe drive.

Moeller and Parry also coordinated with Moeller’s soccer club, Alpharetta Ambush Soccer Club, to donate used cleats and shoes.

“Both Hazen and I also got money donated to us, and we bought as many pairs of shoes as we could with it,” said Moeller.

Moeller and Parry are still collecting money and shoes for this donation. Students with shoe donations can drop them off with either Law and Justice teacher Timothy Hart or AV teacher Hal Funderburk, or they can leave them in a donation bin outside the school’s front doors.

“We started collecting shoes two weeks after Alex passed away. I am still collecting shoes and will keep collecting them throughout the year, but the main shoe drive will be in mid-December of each year,” said Moeller.

The community has been very supportive of this drive and Escabi’s family. Through the drive in Escabi’s memory, they have helped collect over 1,000 shoes and a little over $1,600 in cash donations.

Moeller’s mom made a logo for “Soles for Alex” and people are helping them make some clothing items with the logo, said Moeller.

Moeller’s mother and her friend created a tag with Escabi’s logo to put on all the shoes they donate.