Magazine collects 10,000 shoes to turn into playgrounds

WASHINGTON -- A children's magazine strolled into the Guinness World Record books this week by assembling a record-setting chain of shoes that, ultimately, will be used for good.National Geographic Kids magazine collected 10,512 shoes over a six-month period by soliciting donations from their readers. The shoes will now be re-donated to Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program, where their rubber soles will be turned into playgrounds and sports surfaces such as track fields."What you see behind me is not 10,000 stinky sneakers . . .but two brand-new basketball courts," said Melina Bellows, the magazine's editor in chief.When tied heel to toe, the sneakers measure about 8,700 feet or more than 1.6 miles in length.The magazine's editors made the call for donations in an effort to educate their young readers on the importance of recycling. Individual readers, and school and community groups organized shoe drives across the country for the effort.The biggest individual contributor was Peter Wajda, 8, of Mount Laurel, N.J., who collected 509 shoes for the project. He's not quite sure why the odd number, joking that he figures someone either lost a shoe or he got a "donation from a one-legged person."Peter, who said he was inspired to be more environmentally conscious by Earth Day and recycling activities at his school, read the call for shoe donations in National Geographic Kids and quickly got his pediatrician, family and school to help him collect."At the beginning of the school year, the head of my school said lots of people can make a little difference, but one person can make a big difference, and I said, 'Why can't I be the big difference person'," Peter said.Peter, who will enter third grade next year at Moorestown Friends School in Mount Laurel, delivered the shoes in January to the National Geographic Society's office in Washington.He was honored in Washington Wednesday at a press conference announcing the record.In addition to readers' contributions, members of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team donated their old sneakers.So did actress Cameron Diaz, who contributed two of her former running shoes.Diaz served as guest editor for the magazine's first "Green Issue" in October 2007, which unveiled the campaign.This is the third Guinness Record the magazine has set. In November 2004, it created the world's longest line of footprints -- 10,932 prints, measuring nearly two miles. In December 2006,the magazine collected 2,304 plush toys, a record that has since been beaten.That was "a sign that we are inspiring others, which is a good thing," Bellows said.Yesterday's achievement dwarfs the previous world record of 840 shoes measuring 1,483 feet set in 2007 by Goffstown High School in Goffstown, N.H.Bellows said it took magazine staffers more than six hours to tie all the donated shoes into a chain for counting."It's quite an achievement; it's not as easy as it looks," said Stuart Claxton, U.S. business development manager for Guinness. It took him more than three hours to count the shoes.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)