PUTTING HEART INTO SOLES
Girl, 7, uses birthday to help make shoes for Uganda
Riley Lyons didn’t have a bounce house or a party at the zoo for her seventh birthday.
I ns t e ad, t he Pal m B e a c h Gardens-area girl wanted to help people, so dad Tim introduced her to an organization that helps children in Uganda suffering from parasites called jiggers (not to be confused with chiggers). Jiggers burrow into flesh, mainly feet, and cause infections.
“It’s kind of like stepping on a thumb tack and never get- ting it out. I don’t like thumb tacks, and I don’t think those kids do, either, so I wanted to help them,” Riley said.
Sole Hope provides each person it cares for with a new pair of handmade, closed-toe shoes. Riley and her sister Kenley hosted 13 of their friends for a shoe-cutting party at their house Friday night.
They cut out patterns from old jeans, then pinned them together and sent them to Sole Hope with $10 per pair to pay for health care, shipping and labor. Tailors and shoemakers employed by Sole Hope in Uganda then finish assembling the shoes.