San Antonio resident Janet Chubinsky is skating her nonprofit Shoes4Schools onto the ice rink at Florida Hospital Center Ice.
The skating rink will be hosting a “SkateForShoes” fundraiser for the charity on June 1. The charity collects donations of new shoes every year to give to Pasco County schoolchildren who need them.
From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., individual admission to the rink will be the standard $10 fee, with discounts for seniors, veterans and active military. Anyone who donates a new pair of shoes, however, won’t have to pay the $5 charge for renting skates. Shoe sizes for children through adults are needed.
Volunteers with Shoes4Schools will have display tables. Cash donations also will be accepted. Prize drawings are planned.
On the same day, Pasco County school administrators, including principals and vice principals, also will be at the skating facility to kickoff a summer conference.
“This is the first event we’ve done as a (single) event for a charity,” said Morgan Novotny, of Florida Hospital Center on Ice.
Shoes4Schools has grown enormously over the years.
In total, the charity has distributed more than 7,000 pairs of shoes.
Chubinsky began the effort after she and her husband moved from Tennessee to Pasco County.
A quiet retirement wasn’t her style.
Her daughter suggested that she revive a shoe donation program she had initially started in Tennessee.
After a visit to Raymond B. Stewart Middle School in Zephyrhills, Chubinsky was off and running, or at least, tooling around in a 2000 model SUV.
She slapped a magnetic logo on the vehicle’s doors – a pair of sneakers. And, she delivered shoes, lots of them.
During Chubinsky’s first year, the charity gave away 36 pairs of shoes. By the second year, Shoes4Schools put 900 pairs of shoes on the feet of Pasco schoolchildren.
Chubinsky has been on the move ever since, and the shoes keep piling up.
“She’s a firecracker,” said Novotny. “She’s amazing.”
For information, visit Shoes-4-Schools.org.
Shoes4Schools fundraiser: “SkateForShoes”
Where: Florida Hospital Center Ice, 3173 Cypress Ridge Blvd., Wesley Chapel
What: Fundraiser to collect donations of new shoes for Pasco County schoolchildren. Sizes children through adults needed.
Cost: $10 rink admission; $8 for seniors, veterans and active military, with valid ID; free skate rental for anyone who donates a new pair of shoes
Info: Call Florida Hospital Center Ice at (813) 807-7372, or visit FloridaHospitalCenterIce.com or Shoes-4-Schools.org.
Published May 23, 2018
