Rose McCarthy has multiple pairs of Crocs in every color of the rainbow. Close to 300, actually.

"I love them - but I only wear them in the backyard, never out," McCarthy said.

The 58-year-old nurse isn't hording the plastic, perforated clogs to wear while gardening. They're for the 140 orphans living at the Armando Rosenberg Home and School, as well as the 1,200 who attend classes at the facility in Sabana Perdida, the largest barrio Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

McCarthy, president of the Atlantic City Rotary Club, started the Crocs for Kids drive Aug. 3. Since then, she has accumulated about 300 pairs and hopes to top 1,200 by the time the drive ends Oct. 10. She might extend it, it likely will be November before the departure of the annual shipment of goods comprised of donations from any of 80 regional clubs who can contribute to the orphanage, which the Rotary started and continues to run.

Typically, the Atlantic City club contributes pallets of milk.

"I wanted to come up with something different this year. (Crocs) are easy, they're light, they don't take up a lot of space, ... they're unbreakable," McCarthy said.

The light, waterproof shoes will work for children walking around in the wet, hot, tropical climate of Santo Domingo, too, she added.

The project is one of several new initiatives she's trying during her yearlong term at the helm of the service club.

McCarthy, whose tenure as president ends in July 2010, plans to visit the orphanage for the first time in March 2010. She'll make the trip with the district chairperson - who leads a coalition of 40 local groups - and other adult rotarians who organize annual service trips there for children and young adults involved in student rotary organizations: Interact and Rotaract for high school and college students, respectively.

While other district clubs pretty much do their own thing, McCarthy would consider inviting others to contribute to future Crocs for Kids drives.

"I wanted to go beyond Rotary and get people in the community involved," she said of a secondary goal of the drive. "And at the same time, I wanted to show them that this is what we do."