147 Foster Youth Provided New Shoes
On August 14, 147 foster youth were provided $2,800 worth of new shoes. The Children’s Foundation of America collaborated with She Stories and Shoes 4 Grades, to identify the need of shoes for foster youth and create an event to meet those needs.
Ehmandah Ramsey is the Executive Director and founder of She Stories, and Randall Trice is the Executive Director and founder of Shoes 4 Grades. Both organizations are long-time partners and extremely passionate, dedicated, and committed to helping kids thrive in school. CFA has partnered with each organization in the past, which is why they reached out to Gail Polk, CFA Community Outreach Coordinator.
Gail gathered information regarding shoes sizes from local foster youth. The CFA team, She Stories team, and Shoes 4 Grades team spent weeks gathering shoe donations from all around the Inland Empire. “Quite often foster youth are overlooked because many believe all their needs are met by the various counties. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The need is too great, and the number of foster youth is too high. I am so grateful to Shoes 4 Grades and She Stories, that they were able to collect shoes for all of the TYS resource family foster youth,” said Gail.
Foster families were invited to attend an event on August 14, where Shoes 4 Grades and She Stories gifted each foster youth new shoes. On the day of the event, staff from Trinity Youth Services (TYS) foster care, CFA, Shoes 4 Grades, and She Stories gathered to celebrate and distribute shoes.
“This donation was overwhelmingly generous,” said Laura Kassem, TYS Rancho Cucamonga Foster Care Director. “The shoe selection was beautiful and definitely sparked the interest of the youth as they arrived to pick up their shoes. It was so heartwarming to see the sparkle in the children’s eyes and the smile from cheek to cheek as they were given their shoes or asked to pick from the various size groups.”
It is thanks to amazing organizations such as Shoes 4 Grades and She Stories, that CFA can have the impact we do. If you are interested in partnering with us, contact us at 800.KIDS.730 or email donations@trinityys.org.
Isabel Millward-Pena, Communications Specialist
Isabel contributes content for our social media, blog, newsletters and promotional materials. She recently earned a bachelor’s degree in English from California State University San Bernardino and is currently working on her master’s degree. Isabel began working with our team as an intern and, luckily for us, never left. Prior to her work at CFA, she was a substitute instructional aid and a supervisor at Starbucks. She has also volunteered as an aid at local elementary schools and notably achieved “Partner of the Quarter” at Starbucks in 2017.