Hundreds of elementary school kids receive brand new shoes
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Brand new pairs of shoes found their way to the feet of hundreds of kids Friday morning when they were handed out at a southwest Oklahoma City elementary school.
A brand new pair of kicks will put a smile on anyone’s face. That was easily the case for around 450 kids at Esparanza Elementary School because Metro Shoe Warehouse fit them up and sent them all home with a shiny new pair of shoes as part of the Metro Shoe Project.
"This is one of the happiest days of our year,” school principal Glenna Berry said.
Berry said she has been at the school for 6 years. Each year, she said she hears from parents about just how much of a help this is.
"I will always have them come to me and say ‘thank you, this made a huge difference, wasn't sure what we were going to do’ and so it is a huge service to our community,” she said.
Volunteers consist of parents, Oklahoma City Public Schools employees and Metro Shoe Warehouse employees like Zac Webb.
"We started the Metro Shoe Project in 2012 and we've shoe’d over 30,000 kids,” Webb said.
They’ve come to Esparanza every year since the project began. The giving comes full circle, too. A few years back, Webb said a former student of the elementary school visited them at one of their store locations and she was in college at the time.
"She knew who we were because she was impacted here,” he said. "You're giving back to the community and seeing people come back around is a great feeling."
Now, hundreds of other kids will leave with a smile just as that former student did when she was younger. There’s a chance one of them will come back around and put a smile back on the faces of those who helped them as well.
Webb said they sell shoes that are “brand of the month” at the store each month. When you buy a pair of shoes that is the “brand of the month” that buys a pair of shoes for the project to give to a child.