Local woman starts group to collect shoes for needy students

Tag : chidren socks
As her work as a banking consultant wound down last year, LindaGodbold of Rock Hill felt a burden weighing on her shoulders, likeshe needed to do something to help people.
So she started researching something she had read about in amagazine -- a nonprofit that gives new shoes to needy youngstudents.
Steppin' High delivered its first batch of shoes to students inRock Hill and Clover this spring. Now, the organization is raisingmoney to help more students next school year.
"It gives them some pride," Godbold said. "It gives them some selfesteem. Some of these kids have never owned a new pair of shoes."
Godbold and the other members of her group worked with people inRock Hill and Clover schools to identify the need for new shoes.
What they found was that some chidren wear worn-out shoes,hand-me-down shoes with no socks and occasionally mismatched shoesor even two sandals made for the same foot.
"That's just a basic need," said Luanne Kokolis, an associatesuperintendent in Rock Hill. "If you're not comfortable, and you'renot warm, and you have a pair of shoes on that's causing you pain... that's going to impact your comfort level and your ability toconcentrate."
Steppin' High paired up with Payless ShoeSource to get shoes at adiscount. The schools were given shoe sizers to measure thechildren's feet. After that, the shoes were ordered and droppedoff.
Seventy-seven students got either black or white athletic shoes andtwo pairs of socks. They went to Oakdale and Rosewood elementaryschools in Rock Hill and all of the schools with kindergartenthrough sixth-grade in Clover.
Kokolis said that because the students receiving the shoes were allyounger, there weren't many questions asked about where the shoescame from or why certain kids got them.
"More than anything else they were proud," she said. "Some lefttheir old shoes in the nurse's office and never came back forthem."
Godbold paid for the first batch of shoes herself. But from now on,the nonprofit will be reliant on donations. The goal is to give outa few hundred pairs of shoes during the 2008-2009 school year.
Even small donations can make a big difference, Godbold said.
"Your feet are your foundation," she said. "If your feet hurt, youhurt all over."