Yesterday was one day without shoes day sponsored by Toms shoes. I participated, just as I have the last 4 years. My first year, I was working as administrative assistant for PumpWorks under Heath's Directorship. That job thankfully allowed for plenty of flexibility, so on that day back in 2010 I took an extra long lunch. Toms website allows people to organize groups in the area to have barefoot walks all around town. When the scheduled time came around, I met up at the park in front of Lloyd Center where I found about 10 other strangers looking for the same event. The two guys who organized our gathering were a little younger than me and were attempting to create a safe place for teens to come and have fun, etc. They called their place February Falls Short. From attempting to Google the organization now, it seems they are no longer running. It was a really fun experience getting to know all of these people who came from different backgrounds and such. We walked from Lloyd center all the way down to pioneer square, I think it took about an hour. Here is a video one of the participants made from the walk. I'm the one in the big puffy jacket walking toward the front of the group. http://youtu.be/NqJgPkzxomw I haven't stayed in close touch with any of the people from this day, but I am Facebook friends with a few of them.
My second year participating, I was living in the woodlawn neighborhood. I think I was on spring break from the daycare that week. The day before I had just gotten my foot tattoo in memorial of the one year after my Grampa had passed away. I was not able to find any groups meeting this year, but I did want to get out of the house and actually experience walking barefoot that day. I also had been meaning to walk across all of the bridges in Portland and take lots of pictures of that experience. So, I put the two together and walked from my house across the I-5 bridge. I left a little later than I was hoping, I think it was around 4 pm It took me about two hours to get to the bridge. The streets did not have a lot of sidewalks. I was asked a couple of times by passersby why I did not have any shoes on. It was a fairly busy road to be walking on at rush hour time. I was not sure the best way to walk to the bridge. I took a couple detours. I passed some scary looking people. It took me about another hour to cross the bridge and back over again. It was starting to get dark. I had left my car keys at home, in case this did happen to me. I took a break at Target and called my roommate Rachel. She was so kind to do me the grand favor of picking me up and driving me back home. My feet were tired and sore. I had used all of both my cameras batteries and memory space.
The past couple of years have not been as eventful. Last year I worked at both the daycare and babysat for one of the families I had been working for. The daycare hardly noticed I was not wearing shoes. We pretty much never wear shoes anyways. Never in the house, usually outside. I just didn't at all that day. The boys I babysat for asked me why* I was not wearing any shoes. These boys were fun. They were 5 and 7 half Japanese/half American. The five year old was pretty spunky in general and questioned pretty much anything I said or did. I explained to him why I was not wearing shoes. This year I was working. I currently Nanny for a 21 month old. We stayed inside most of the day, but toward the end of my shift he really wanted to go outside. The UPS man had knocked on the door just as the baby was waking up from his nap. He was really persistent at the door, so we rushed downstairs. As I was signing for the package, the child's Mom came home. So we spent a good 5 minutes running around outside both barefoot. Their rocky driveway was really starting to hurt my feet. I decided this was not responsible childcare at this point. Thankfully, convincing him to go inside for a moment to get shoes on was not a battle (as at times it has been). Once he had shoes on, he wanted to hit the neighborhood. I politely obliged. He raced up the hill of their driveway, as I paced behind him. Their neighborhood unfortunately does not have sidewalks. We only spent about a half hour out there up the gravel street we explored on was killer on my soles. I found relief by walking on the yellow painted dashes in the middle of the road, when I could. As soon as I got home I washed my poor tired, sore feet.
Why* do I do this each year? I do not own any Toms shoes. I think what Toms does is good. I have heard rumors about poor business practices they have, but I have not heard confirming facts either way. The reason I do this is because of the children right here in our very neighborhoods. There are thousands of children who go barefoot or without proper footwear everyday not by choice all around the world, including america. Here in America, and locally in Portland, where the children I generally serve have one of the highest homeless populations in the country. I know for a fact at least one family we served at Pumpworks was homeless. Many of the children we work with are neglected at home or even abused. Some are loved, treasured, and cared for; but their families are still in poverty and still cannot afford basic necessities. Some are living in horribly sad and difficult family situations beyond their control. They live with their parents, other family members, or in foster homes. We PumpWorks gets up and running again in a few years I want us to be more active in the families we serve lives. Sometimes we learn about the situations they are facing because a child will mention something or a parent will step forward and tell us. I want to reach out to all of the parents and find out their prayer requests as well as what needs their families are struggling with. Not only do I want to know what they are, I want us to try and meet those needs. I think this will be an easily attainable goal. (source: http://shoes4theshoeless.org/blog/) I stumbled upon this blog while searching for facts for my blog. Check it out.
I am ONE person. Right now I have ONE follower. If I can inform ONE person of the struggles of the children around us, I have accomplished something. If I can meet ONE child's need, I have made a difference. What ONE person can you reach? What ONE change can you make?
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