Kicks for Kindness: Shoe Drive Helps Schools Pay Lunch Debt
Written by Victoria Scialfa on March 5, 2020
Kicks for Kindness: Shoe Drive Helps Schools Pay Lunch Debt
By Stephen Jiwanmall
March 5, 2020
Schools in the Lehigh Valley are collecting shoes this month for a local nonprofit called “Kindness is Magic.”
WLVR’s Stephen Jiwanmall explains how the drive helps children locally, and around the world.
Inside Melissa Fillman’s garage are bags and bags of shoes.
Last year, her nonprofit Kindness is Magic collected more than 8,000 pounds. Fillman partnered with another group to turn each pound into 40 cents.
The shoes go to kids in developing countries, and the money goes straight to paying off student lunch debt.
“There’s children in our district that are coming to school that didn’t necessarily have breakfast, aren’t necessarily going to have dinner, and they really need their lunch,” says Fillman
Liberty High School’s choir wrote a jingle for the shoe drive.
Choir president Jill Rudolph says she’s had to put her lunch tray back before, because she didn’t have money for a meal. She says supporting the shoe drive is personal.
“I think it’s good, because then, kids don’t have to go through what I went through and not understand why they can’t eat,” says Rudolph.
The shoe drive runs through March 28th.
Watch Stephen’s full PBS39 News Tonight Report.
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