She tied the laces of both shoes together before throwing them. It took several tries before the shoes crossed over one another and the laces became entangled on the power line.
The shoes have been there ever since.
Some residents throw their shoes across the wires on their 21st birthdays. Welch said her reason for throwing the shoes was not because of a birthday or because the shoes had any particular significance to her. She just wanted to add to the group.
"They were just an old pair," she said.
Currently, there are about a dozen pairs of shoes hanging from the wires above Keller Street.
The shoes hanging on the power lines above the street are more of a nuisance for local power companies than a real safety hazard, said Allen Staggers, manager of communications for Allegheny Power.
"It's not going to cause massive power failures," he said.
Because some power lines are not heavily insulated, any objects touching them will channel electricity, even if the material is not a good conductor.
"Once materials are up there and they get wet, some small arcing can occur," Staggers said. "It could cause a problem later on."
Often if the shoes cross two different electrical wires, electricity will cause the laces holding the shoes up to burn.
Shoes are not objects the power company usually receives requests to clear from the wires, Staggers said.
"Quite routinely we'll get balloons or kites across the wires; our guys will go knock them down," he said.
The weight of shoes hanging from the power lines also is not a concern to Allegheny Power. The lines are strung under high tension and can support the weight of hundreds of birds.
During a winter storm, however, ice can form on the wires and coat the shoes, greatly increasing the load on the wires, Staggers said.
Staggers' main concern is people getting near the power lines to throw the shoes. "Getting into close proximity to power lines is a dangerous thing to do," he said. "It's a safety issue."
In State College, throwing shoes or other objects over electrical wires is an offense that can be punished with a citation, Borough Manager Peter Marshall said.
"It would be criminal mischief, tampering with property," Marshall said.
Once the shoes are on the wire, however, they usually stay there for quite some time.
"There are shoes that have been up there for over a year," Cedar Lofts resident Jen Stolarick (senior-administrative justice) said.
"Sometimes the weather knocks them down," Welch said, adding that she thinks the shoes staying on the lines are not a concern to Allegheny Power.
"I've seen the power company working on the wires. They get pretty close, but they don't take them down," she said.
