A Belchertown shoemaker’s mission this month to make shoes for Syrian refugee children struck a chord in the Valley.
Andrea Boyko says she has been overwhelmed with offers to help make the “muck shoes” and donations of materials and money since the Gazette published a story about her effort in mid-January. “I’ve got a notebook full of people who contacted me from all over the place. … It blew me away.”
Discarded inner tubes from which rubber is cut to make the shoes’ soles now fill Boyko’s shed. Woolen blankets which are cut up to line the shoes were delivered to her house. The $600 which was donated is more than enough for other materials and to ship the shoes to Syria, and the balance will help pay Boyko’s expenses on her next mission when she visits the Greek island of Lesbos in June.
Boyko had to turn volunteers away Jan. 16 when more than 70 people showed up for a work day at the Common School in Amherst, which her daughters attend. “I was sitting at my sewing machine when I looked up and saw dads ironing fabric, moms with babies strapped to them doing the cutting, and kids washing inner tubes having a good old time. It really was a beautiful sight.”
By the end of last week, Boyko estimated she had sewed 75 pairs of shoes, and was aiming for 100 by the end of the month. Originally she had planned to make 50 pairs of shoes during January, which she normally takes off from working full time at her business, Bula Jean’s Boutique, which sells handmade, recycled shoes and clothing items.
Boyko believes so many people have responded because they feel, as she does, that putting shoes on the feet of Syrian children is one concrete way of making a difference in the lives of refugees. That is particularly true during January as President Donald Trump took office and ordered a temporary halt to admitting refugees.
“The situation itself is so overwhelming,” Boyko says. “It’s one little thing I can do … helping children who are living in tents in the snow, with no hopes of having a home to go to.”
Once all the pieces are cut from recycled materials including T-shirts, sweaters and jeans, it takes Boyko about 15 minutes at her industrial Singer sewing machine to sew the shoes together.
The shoes will be shipped to woman in Turkey, who will take them to the Syrian border for delivery to the refugee camps.
Instead of a family vacation to Costa Rica this year, the Boykos plan to spend the month of June on Lesbos, where thousands of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq have resettled. Boyko will give sewing workshops in the refugee camps, including showing how to make the “muck shoes.”
Boyko’s success — with the help of many Valley volunteers — is a sure sign that even if Trump succeeds in closing U.S. borders to refugees, compassionate Americans will find a way to reach them, heart and sole.