At St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Austin, there has been a long-running inside joke between Pastor Mark Niethammer and his seventh and eighth grade confirmation students about Crocs, the foam clog.

Niethammer, by his own admission, hates Crocs, while the confirmation students love them and will endlessly argue in favor of them.

Now, those students are using his dislike for the shoe to their advantage.

St. Olaf’s confirmation program has a new theme this year entitled, “For Our Neighbors.” All year long, the students have been challenged to be neighbor-minded. They found a way to combine being “For Our Neighbors” with their class joke by creating a “Pink Croc Food Drive” to feed their neighbors and make their pastor wear Crocs.

Here was the agreement: If the congregation could collect 2,000 non-perishable food items between Nov. 5
and 19, Niethammer would have to wear
pink Crocs in worship one Sunday morning. Each additional 500 items over the 2,000 item goal would add another Sunday in Crocs.

You guessed it: Items flew in during the last week of the drive, and students ended up collecting well over 2,600 items.

The items will be distributed to local food shelves, including those in Grand Meadow, Lyle, and Adams. Some items will be kept at St. Olaf to help stock the church’s Little Free Pantry.

And Niethammer? He’ll be wearing his new pink Crocs in worship on Dec. 3 and 10.