OKC elementary school students get new shoes
Dozens of volunteers filled the empty cafeteria inside Wheeler Elementary School in south Oklahoma City on Friday morning, eager to get started.
Next came the shoes. Boxes of them. Assorted colors, styles and sizes. Something for everybody, courtesy of MetroShoe Warehouse.
“Measure each kid. Size ‘em up,” co-owner Heath Martin told his helpers, some of them firefighters from Moore. “Give ‘em room to grow, because some of these kids will be wearing the same shoes we gave ‘em last year.”
About 400 children — most from low-income families — came next, the first grades waiting patiently in line for their turn to pick out a pair of free shoes.
Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Aurora Lora was among those directing traffic. First the kids were seated and measured. Next a runner presented each with three boxes containing different styles from which to choose. Call it controlled chaos. Julie Aragon, 9, didn’t take long to make her decision.
“These ones,” she said, pointing to a pair of pink mesh tennis shoes with pink laces.
“I like ‘em,” the thirdgrader said with a smile. “I like that they’re pink and soft inside.”
Damien Cruz, 8, pulled off his weathered high tops and picked out a pair of tennis shoes with black and red designs “’cuz I like red.”
And so it went. Excited students breaking into song over their selections, some exchanging high fives with their classmates.
“The kids really love it,” said Deserae Jackson, Wheeler’s first-year principal. “They take ownership in the brand new shoes.
“They’re not handme-downs. They’re not brother or sister’s old ones. They’re not torn up. They are shiny, new, just for them, and they get a little bit of pampering. They love it.”
The donations weren’t limited to shoes. Tinker Air Force Base provided new socks to every student.
“A lot of our families have only one income, and so for them to have somebody come in and just give them shoes with no strings attached is huge,” Jackson said. “It’s a huge relief to parents.”
Between now and the end of the school year, the shoe retailer with locations in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa will donate about 3,000 pairs of shoes to students at Bodine, F.D. Moon, Green Pastures, Shidler, Stand Watie and Wheeler elementary schools in the Oklahoma City district.
“It’s an opportunity for us to give back to the community,” Martin said. “It’s something that’s important to the kids.”
Martin and co-owner Jason Parks started the MetroShoe Project five years ago. They’ve donated nearly $120,000 worth of shoes to district students over the last two years, Lora said.
“This is a really wonderful event,” she said. “Community partners are a huge, huge help to us and it is so heartwarming to see them want to take care of our families.”
Enrique Quiroz, 8, clutched a bag containing his new shoes as he waited outside the cafeteria to go back to class. He grinned from ear to ear.
“I got the blue shoes and you know why I got them?” he asked. “It’s that I like blue shoes.”