Photograph by Robert Scheer
Arthur Mintz poses at one of his favorite portrait locations along Saratoga Creek.
By Cecily Barnes
Saratoga resident Arthur Mintz recently returned from Venezuela, where he distributed 120 pounds of shoes to many children who had never worn footwear before in their lives.
The portrait photographer and longtime Saratogan has spent the last eight summers vacationing in Venezuela as an assistant to the Medical Ambassadors, a Christian missionary organization that administers medical care in Third World countries.
Mintz's latest visit was slightly different than the previous seven. On this trip, Mintz discarded his identity as a photographer and well-intentioned nurse's assistant and became the Venezuelan Shoe Fairy.
After learning last year that Venezuelan children get 90 percent of their diseases through their feet, Mintz initiated a shoe drive and collected more than 120 pounds of new and used footwear. Mintz said Saratogans turned out by the dozens, practically handing him the shoes off their feet.
"I was impressed by the kindness of the people bringing in the shoes," he added. "And we would have taken in a lot more if we had known how easy it was to get them."
But after battling mid-July heat to transport the 120-pound packaging nightmare across a continent, Mintz was glad the shoe donations stopped when they did.
"Because we had all these shoes," Mintz chuckled, "we couldn't go in the plane. So we had to go by bus."
Once in Venezuela, the shoe crew traveled in dugout canoes. Did they row 120 pounds of shoes across the Amazon? Well, not exactly.
"There's a 75-horsepower Yamaha outboard motor on the back of the canoe," Mintz said.
Once they reached their destination village, Mintz and his buddies escorted barefoot children to their cabin, where they gave away all the donated shoes in a single day. Mintz couldn't help but smile as he recalled how the Venezuelan children dug through the mound of discarded shoes as if they were gold. But not every child's reaction gave Mintz a warm, benevolent feeling inside. He said some children simply selected a pair of shoes and left.
"This little kid about 8 or 9 years old came in," Mintz recalled, "and we got him a nice pair of shoes, and he just turned on his heel and left. No expression of gratitude at all." Mintz raised his arms and widened his mouth in feigned disbelief. "Didn't he know I'd gotten out of the bus at seven a.m. in the rain? [But] I had to say to myself, 'Did I come here for the gratitude?'"
In addition to doling out shoes, Mintz donated a sizable sum of money to help build a conference center in Venezuela. This center will act as a meeting place for the 600 or so churches around the area.
"What we are doing is building a conference center where they can come together and have a whoop-de-do and sing," Mintz explained.
The small community where the conference center was built is home to Christians as well as people from various other religions. Mintz feels that part of his job there is to teach the local residents the difference between religions.
"They make their own choice about who to follow, but we teach them the difference," Mintz explained.
Mintz comes from a long line of helping hands. He remembers when his father, a pastor in Sunnyvale, would take him along to help out the less fortunate.
"Every winter after a heavy rain, Milpitas would flood," Mintz remembered, "and the ministers would all go out there to help. My father always brought along a huge pot of stew. I thought it was nice to bring spiritual comfort, but this pot of stew was always very welcome."
By handing out shoes in addition to prayers, Mintz is following in his father's practical footsteps. He plans to continue his annual visits to Central America indefinitely.
"I don't see any reason to stop," he said. "It gives me a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction."
Mintz currently is looking for donations of outboard motors with 50 horsepower or greater, foot-powered sewing machines, medical apparatus suited for a primitive environment and closed-toed shoes. These items will be distributed to Venezuelans by Mintz on his next visit. He can be contacted at 867-4077.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, August 28, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved