Bags of gently worn shoes are stacked high in one hallway at Corona del Sol as DECA business students set out on an ambitious community service project with global reach.

Corona's Business and Marketing Teacher Robin Palmer, along with two of her students, set a goal of collecting 2,500 pairs of gently worn shoes to donate to Shoes With Heart. The collected shoes are shipped around the world to benefit Micro-Enterprises.

"Their goal is to help provide shoes for people around the world who just don't have shoes, or need shoes for the environments that they are in," said Corona's Robin Palmer, who sponsors Corona's DECA club.

"It makes me happy that I can help other people," said project leader Tiffany Nguyen, a senior at Corona. "[The project] has taught me stuff about landfill, how it's harmful for the environment and how there's people who need shoes, too."

Mahima Mishra, a sophomore at Corona, has helped lead the charge to get the word out around campus about the need for shoes. DECA students asked their friends, family and teachers for donations, as well as worked with clubs and organizations on campus to help promote their cause. A big collection opportunity came earlier in the semester when CDS Student Council waived the admission fee to their annual school Bonfire in exchange for two pairs of donated shoes.

After weeks of collecting shoes, Corona students were tasked to count and organize their donations to see how far along they'd come in reaching their goal. Each pair of shoes must be tied together, bagged in individual shoe bags and then stored in larger bags of 25 pairs. DECA is looking to fill 100 full bags of shoes.

"I think this is a great opportunity for people to learn how you can give back, because many people don't know that through DECA students have the opportunity to do service projects," said Mishra. "Just in your own school, your own community, you can help out."

All students who take Marketing and Business classes at Corona are automatically placed in DECA, an international association of high school and college students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality and marketing sales and service. DECA students work alongside professionals in the industry and compete in national competitions.

"It becomes a co-curricular opportunity for them to learn about business, but also be able to share things in a professional way," Palmer said about the program.

Corona del Sol is still accepting shoe donations. For more information on how you can help, please contact Robin Palmer at rpalmer@tempeunion.org.