Shoe Project Highlights a Generation of Caring
How about three kids who took their great grandpa's story to heart and decided to continue the caring? That's just what happened this fall when three grandchildren of Rotarian Jim Weems and wife, Marilyn, decided to support the Marion East Cedar Rapids Shoes for Kids program.
Sarah, Megan and Michael had noticed successful fund raising campaigns at Linn Mar High School, where Sarah and Megan are seniors and Michael is a sophomore, and decided they could carry on the Weems tradition of caring.
The story that prompted this action goes like this: Once, when Marilyn's father was a boy, he boarded a bus. A stranger on the bus noticed that he was not wearing shoes and asked him why. He replied that he didn't have any shoes. The stranger reached into his pocket and gave the boy enough money to buy a new pair. Responding to the boy's question about how he could repay him, the stranger said, "Just do the same for someone else someday." And Jim and Marilyn have done that many times over in honor of Marilyn's father, and have been honored by the Marion East Cedar Rapids Club for their continued generosity and support of this program.
And now a new generation has taken up that honor. The campaign began Friday November 6 and will continue for one week. The students designed an old shoe logo which was pasted on empty cereal boxes to be placed in homerooms at Linn Mar High School. Their goal is to raise $500 to donate to the cause.