For more than 40 years, Jeanne Nealon has been giving shoes to children in need in Lee and Collier Counties with her charity organization, Lace of Love. For the last ten of those years, Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale has been helping her.
Nealon and Sale partnered together back in 2015 to create a shoe drive at his alma mater, where they would collect shoes at FGCU basketball games.
"We started the first shoe drive officially ten years ago, when he retired his jersey here at FGCU and honored Chris that night," said Nealon. "And his goal was to collect a thousand pairs of shoes."
"We've done this for ten years now," said Sale. "And I mean, we're talking over 10,000 pairs of shoes. It's just amazing. It's crazy to think it's been ten years already."
It's become a family affair for all of the Sales. His wife Brianne Sale helped start the tradition in 2015, and Sale's sister is now on the board. You can always find them at Alico Arena in January to personally help bring in more donations.
"He and his wife are extremely amazing," said Nealon. "They show up to volunteer, tag shoes and help out. And we're just really, really grateful to the FGCU fans because they got behind this too."
Hundreds of brand-new shoes were already collected at the men's basketball game versus Queens, and there's one more chance to be involved.
"We'll be collecting the rest of the donations and try to hit our quota of a thousand pairs," said Nealon."
"That's kind of the big tally right there," added Sale. "That's the big push. So, for everybody out there that wants to help out, you can either send them the place of the love or come visit us at a basketball game, bring some shoes, bring a donation, or just come and say hi."
Sale and Nealon will be back at the women's home game next Thursday, January 30 when the Eagles host Lipscomb.
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