Volunteers provide shoes to over 200 Whitley County elementary students

Above, Kayla Petit, a junior at the University of the Cumberlands, washed the feet of Ayden Claxton, 3, during the "Barefoot for Bare Feet" event held Tuesday at the O. Wayne Rollins Center on campus. Over 200 local elementary students received free tennis shoes as part of the effort.

Thanks to the efforts of several University of the Cumberlands students, staff and administrators, about 200 local elementary school students got a free new pair of shoes Tuesday morning.

As part of the "Barefoot for Barefeet" event, about 100 volunteers packed into the O. Wayne Rollins Center to help wash the feet of 200 less fortunate children from Boston and Pleasant View elementary schools, who ranged in age from preschool to sixth grade.

The children then got a pair of new shoes and socks.

"I know the need is out there. I have worked in a couple of the Whitley County schools myself," said Alyssa Burke, one of the organizers of the event.

"Some of these kids are in the back pack program, which means they don’t have enough food on the weekends. The family resource centers of the schools give them a backpack full of food that they take home on the weekends. The need is out there so why not help those really close in our community instead of other places."

The family resource centers helped organizers of Tuesday’s event put together a list of the children most in need of the program.

Sue Lawson, who is helping to care for her six-year-old grandson, Antonio Lawson, while his mother is serving in the Navy, said that the event means quite a bit to people raising children and grandchildren.

Lawson said that shoe purchases can be really expensive on top of other back to school expenses.

"For the price of another pair of shoes, you can buy something else for them," she said. "I love it. A lot of people need this."

Burke said the reason for the foot washing and other activities Tuesday was to let the children know that someone cares about them.

"It is much more than just handing them a pair of shoes. It is letting them know that someone cares about them," Burke said. "It is that eight to 10 minutes one on one that they get with that one person sitting there washing their feet, giving them new socks, putting their new shoes on and letting them know that someone cares for them at this moment."

Lawson admits that the event, which also included various activities for the children and games for the children, was a lot more than she anticipated.

"We expected them to stand in a line, get their shoes and go home. The kids are really enjoying it," she said.

Funding for the event came through various sources.

Last season during selected games, coaches on the women’s basketball team would coach barefoot as part of a fundraising effort.

In addition to the basketball team, other groups, offices and individuals on campus donated money to help with the event, including University of the Cumberlands President Dr. James Taylor.

Members of the women’s volleyball team, the men’s soccer team, the women’s wrestling team, and the archery team, all volunteered Tuesday in addition to students working in the multimedia and athletic services office.

In addition, a few professors with the Insights freshman orientation classes brought their students to participate in the event.