Shoes That Fit was founded in 1992. When the Board asked me to take over as Executive Director full time, I jumped at the chance. I had volunteered at the organization since the beginning while working in the insurance industry full time for 22 years and raising two daughters. I had also served on the Board and worked as a part-time Development Director at the same time. In fact, my girls grew up helping me with my Shoes That Fit work; helping me run the program at their school and volunteering with me.
I am proud of the fact that Shoes That Fit has grown so much. We started in one school in 1992 and now we serve children in almost 800 schools in 30 states. Since we began, more than 555,000 items have been donated to children in need across the country. And we do it all from one small office in Claremont, CA with just five staff people. Almost all of the work is done by volunteers helping children in their communities.
The Programs
Shoes That Fit began with the story of a little boy at a school in Pomona, CA. He was found crying on the playground and saying that his feet hurt, so he was taken to the nurse's office. When the nurse took off his shoes, she saw that his toes had been curled under and his feet were stuffed into shoes that were at least 3 sizes too small. The nurse rubbed his feet, then curled his tows and stuffed them back in his shoes. When asked why she didn't do more to help the boy, the nurse said, "We have so many kids like this, I don't know where to start."
An employee at one of the Claremont colleges asked the nurse to measure their neediest students for new shoes. Forty-five names and shoe sizes were placed on index cards that were posted on a bulletin board at the college. By the end of the week all those children had new shoes. Shoes That Fit still works just like that today. Sponsors, who can be any group of people—a business, church, service club, even just a group of friends—decide they want to help children in their community through Shoes That Fit. They are provided with a Shoes That Fit Start-up Kit that walks them through how to find a school in their area. The school identifies and measures the children who are most in need and the sponsor purchases exactly what those children need. The sponsor knows precisely where their money goes because they have the first name of the child, their gender and shoe size and the sponsor makes the purchase and delivers the shoes to the school.
Responses
The best part of working here is the letters we get from kids. Often they want to keep the box their shoes came in, because they never had new shoes in a box before.
We see kids who are only able to go to school every other day because they share shoes with siblings, or their shoes have no bottoms, or don't match, or are too small or too large. It's such a simple thing to do to help these kids. When they have new shoes or clothes, they don't have to worry about kids teasing them. They can focus on their studies and maybe we can help them break the cycle of poverty and move forward. We work to build these children's self-esteem because, maybe if they realize they are just as worthy of a good pair of new shoes as any other child, that someone they don't even know cared enough to make a difference in their lives, they will see a way out for themselves.
We get letters from kids: "I've been needing shoes but mom and dad haven't been able to buy them for me. Now we can have shoes and food." A couple of years ago, a little girl wrote us, saying that she always wore hand me downs and clothes from Goodwill, but when her mom learned about Shoes That Fit, she got new clothes. And she said, "I felt so pretty—I didn't have to feel embarrassed, kids would talk to me. I got straight A's and I never had to miss a day of school."
