CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A nonprofit organization made sure that children in Kanawha County have shoes on their feet as they returned to school.
The Kids of Kanawha recently completed its second annual shoe drive. The organization raised funds to purchase 4,300 pairs of shoes to provide for children as they went back to classrooms this fall.
“We ultimately were able to deliver to all high schools in Kanawha County, all middle schools in Kanawha County, and 28 of the elementary schools,” Kids of Kanawha Treasurer Dominic Tallarico said on MetroNews “Midday” Wednesday. “So, in some form or fashion, I think hopefully every elementary school saw some shoes, but if not, our goal next year would be to make sure that all elementary schools as well receive some of the shoes that we’re donating.”
Tallarico was featured as this week’s “Wonderful West Virginian” on MetroNews “Midday” for the organization’s efforts. He said it’s incredible to see the dedication from everyone at the organization and community members.
“We raised a lot of money and put all that money towards shoes,” Tallarico said. “We saw the need was there, we were just able to deliver on that. It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of shopping, a lot of packaging.”
Tallarico deflected praise from himself to the rest of the Kids of Kanawha nine-person board, along with “countless” volunteers and donors.
“We’re a 100-percent volunteer-based organization,” Tallarico said. “100 percent of our donations go to the local youth. We’re a small group; we’ve only been around a couple of years now, but we really focus on two main drives — currently being our back-to-school shoe drive and we also do a similar drive at Christmastime.”
Graystone Consulting was the presenting sponsor this year with a $10,000 pledge. Tallarico said Graystone, along with several other groups, stepped up, whether their donations ranged from $10 up to large investments.
Donations included both money and shoes, he said. There were drop-off locations all throughout Kanawha County, including at the CAMC Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Saint Agnes Catholic Church, and WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals.
While the impact in Kanawha County is tremendous, Tallarico agreed that it would be great to see such efforts expand all throughout West Virginia’s 55 counties.
“If we could duplicate this same initiative across other counties, it truly could make a big impact,” Tallarico said. “There’s already a lot of other organizations that are doing similar (things), but I don’t know of a back-to-school shoe drive on this scale.”
Volunteers are always welcome, Tallarico said, and they’ll be put to work.
“We have a lot of volunteers, whether it be from an organization or some local med students coming in, it’s a great deal of effort,” Tallarico said. “Just sorting the sizes, from men’s and women’s to children’s, and putting them in piles. Then, ultimately, packaging them into boxes to be delivered to the schools. There’s a lot of ways that you can volunteer.”
Learn more about Kids of Kanawha at their website.