Shoes for Kids Expansion

The Marion- East Cedar Rapids Rotary Club is proud to announce the expansion of their primary service project Shoe for Kids into the Springville School District. The expansion was approved this past February and finalized during the month of March.  The Shoe for Kids program is a program that the MECR club organizes, administers and raises money to provide school nurses in the Cedar Rapids/Marion metropolitan area the ability to directly help kids. School nurses identify students who are in need and who may not have the ability to wear appropriate shoes to school.  This project would not be as successful without its largest partner Payless Shoes Source who provides the $20 certificate to the club enabling a child to shop for a new pair of shoes for school.  Kale O’Brien the school nurse at Springville Elementary was very enthused about the new expansion, “We are so excited to be adopted by the Rotary Club shoe program!! The rural areas have needs and this program is helping to meet some of them. Thank you from the students at Springville!!!”  The results of this program are ongoing, but up to date there has been nearly $50,000 of shoes cards redeemed to through the program.   Nearly 4000 cards have been distributed to date.  The program would not be made possible without Champion for Change nominee Tom Barnes, who took on the challenge of providing these shoes for the needy children in our community by engaging the MECR club and championing the cause to make a difference in the lives of young people.  Tom set out on this 10-year service journey because he believes as a Rotarian, this project exemplifies each point of the Rotary Four-Way Test. Both Tom Barnes and the Marion-East Cedar Rapids Rotary club look forward to the future of the Shoe for Kids program and foresee more expansion in the near future.