Success Stories
Walk a Mile
A Recent Project of STUFF CANADA
December 2000
In May of 1999, STUFF CANADA approached a local shoe retailer for a donation of surplus shoes. The manager furnished the name and number of the owner located in Montreal. After reaching him by phone,
it appeared that he was receptive to a donation of surplus in the future. Two weeks later a truck showed up at our loading dock with 213 pairs of brand new children’s and adult shoes.
No fanfare, no photo-op and no tax-receipt needed. Just his understanding that there are those less fortunate and in need.
This reminds me of a story my mother told my sister and I about growing up in poverty in Toronto. Every year the City would give my mother and her sisters a pair of gently used shoes to wear. This act
of charity does not seem like a problem for the recipients, but when you looked at the shoes themselves you saw there was a number indelibly etched on the sole of each shoe. My mother recalls how she
shuffled her feet in public in a way that no one could see the soles of her shoes, which branded her poor.
These 213 pairs of NEW shoes had no distinguishing numbers to stigmatize the kids and adults
receiving this footwear, just the knowledge that someone cared enough to think about people they did not know. People that share the same need as everyone for love and home and kinship and dignity. Like the binding in our shoes, these are the threads that bind us together as one family in one world. Something like walking a mile in someone else’s shoes!
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