PFASPOTLIGHT
The mission is a simple one: Make sure
kids in school have good shoes.
who delivered the shoes, as well as Susy Warren who has the business brains.
Now the secretary/treasurer, Susy says,
“This has been a wonderful experience and a
lot of it has to do with Jeanne, her personality
and people who have surrounded her, willing to do whatever needed to be done. They
believe in the mission.”
The mission is a simple one: Make sure
kids in school have good shoes. Many are
in pain, wearing shoes too small. Others are
teased because their shoes stink and are falling apart. School officials alert Laces of Love
when they see a need, then Jeanne and her
volunteers make deliveries.
Jill Koisa, secretary for Health Services
for the Lee County School District says, “It
changes kids’ whole attitude about the day.
They get up in the morning with a good pair
of shoes and are eager to go.” Jill calls Jeanne
“a true angel.”
Athletic shoes are also provided for underprivileged kids wanting to participate in sports.
After one drop-off, Jeanne recalls a football
player running up and banging on her car
window. With tears in his eyes, he thanked her
for his cleats, the first new pair of shoes he had
ever owned. Today he is playing football in
college.
Junior Destin knows that feeling; he
needed shoes for school and multiple sports.
He says receiving shoes, something so many of
us take for granted, “made me work harder. It
boosted my confidence in life in general, that
someone cares.”
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Pedorthic Footcare Association www.pedorthics.org
Now a college graduate, he is a volunteer
for Laces of Love.
“For most people, a pair of shoes is nothing. It’s not easy to explain. Knowing how [the
kids] are gonna feel motivates me,” explains
Junior.
The stories are emotional, inspiring, and
too many to mention, so Jeanne is writing a
book, the proceeds of which will go into an
endowment. No one on the board gets paid;
Jeanne won’t even take compensation for
her gas. She’s even got her husband, Donald,
on board; he keeps a trunk full of basketball
shoes, just in case.
The night of their 20th wedding anniversary, Donald wanted to do something special,
but she was consumed with finding a way to
get soccer cleats for three local teams in need.
When he came home from work, she says,
“he told me to ‘pull your car out; we’re going
to Sports Authority, and you can buy as many
cleats as a diamond necklace would cost.’ I was
so excited that I backed into his car, so it cost
him a little more.”
As onlookers saw the boxes of shoes being
stacked up at the checkout, Jeanne says something amazing happened. “People were throwing $20 bills at me. I’ll never forget that.”
She says people will say “‘Oh that’s such
a cute thing you do,’ and I think to myself it’s
more than cute, it’s amazing. I’m so blessed.
We’re here to serve. When it’s all over, what
did you do?”