Bay Area scout spends holiday collecting hundreds of pairs of shoes for charity

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A young Bay Area scout spent the past two weeks collecting more than a thousand pairs of shoes for people who need them.

"I just wanted to do a project that would help a lot of people," said Vishank Battar.

Helping a lot of people is one of the ways Vishank hopes to make Eagle Scout. When he started, he hoped to collect 400 pairs of shoes.

Things started out a little slow, so he passed out flyers at school and in the neighborhood. That's when donations really started flying in.

"All the shoes in total added up to 1,424 pairs of shoes," Battar said.

The shoes are going to the charitable organization Soles4Souls to be handed out in all 50 states.

Battar packed up all the shoes for Tuesday's drive at a warehouse in Fullerton in Southern California.

Battar's leadership skills will help him stand on his own two feet when he goes off to study at Purdue next fall to major in engineering.