AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING IV

From Reader's Digest
July, 1978
By David Larsen in the Los Angeles Times

[Note from JA: I was moved by this story of determination and overcoming adversity - how the resolve of a single person can be such a force for good.]

   Ruth Rubin-Feldman of Santa Monica, CA is the biggest matchmaker since Cupid. For 37 years, she has been bringing couples together - to exchange shoes. The reason is that each has one foot smaller than the other. And every time one of them wanted new shoes, he or she would have to buy two pairs. Swapping is their answer to the problem.
   "That is the way it was for me, when I was growing up in St.Louis," says Ruth Feldman. "Because I had polio, my left foot was smaller than my right by a size and a half." After constantly forking out money for two pairs of shoes, she called the local polio society and got a list of people with the same problem. So began the National Odd Shoe Exchange.

2020 UPDATE by JA
As found on the Internet:

National Odd Shoe Exchange was founded in St. Louis, Missouri in1943. The late Ruth Rubin-Feldman created the organization as a support for polio survivors. Herself a polio survivor, Ms. Feldman had feet of significantly different sizes. When wartime rationing made buying two sizes even more difficult, she conceived the idea of service whereby people with similar problems could register their names and sizes. The registry served as a clearing-house that put people with similar interests and tastes, but opposite foot sizes, in touch with one another. Together the new friends could buy footwear and share the cost. No shoes were wasted, and they saved money.

With many veterans coming home from the war as amputees, the service grew and broadened its scope. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt gave National Odd Shoe Exchange nationwide recognition for providing such a valuable service.

Today, National Odd Shoe Exchange is no longer disease-specific, but assists people with a variety of conditions and life styles. National Odd Shoe Exchange ships new, quality footwear to children, adults, and seniors across the United States and Canada from its distribution center in Chandler, Arizona.