When families do back-to-school shopping, one of the bigger expenses can be the purchase of good shoes for their children to wear.
The Stepping Up for Kids program through the Leadership McKean Project has helped address this financial burden for many families by purchasing hundreds of pairs of sneakers to distribute to children in the Bradford, Smethport and Otto-Eldred school districts.
Now in its fourth year, the program will once again provide sneakers to children who visit Bradford Area School District’s Back to School Rally from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Parkway Field at Bradford Area High School. Sneakers will also be provided to children in the Smethport and Eldred areas.
Lori Freer, director of operations of the Bradford Hospital Foundation and co-chair of Stepping Up for Kids, said that since its inception in 2016 the program has raised close to $25,000 in donations to purchase back-to-school sneakers for children.
Freer said she and co-chair Michele Kicior, who serves as director of residential services at Beacon Light, came up with the mock concept for the sneakers project when the two were participating in Leadership McKean training a number of years ago.
Their mock concept to provide sneakers to school children, however, was such a good idea that “it kept going” and turned into an annual event. Freer explained.
“We continue to keep it going every year and supply the shoes, but the Blaisdell Foundation has provided wonderful support to us,” Freer remarked, noting the Foundation accepts donations on behalf of the project. “From the ideas flowing, to the donations, to now monitoring the funds, Ron Orris (executive director of the Blaisdell Foundation,) has been an integral part of the success of this program.
“We give out between 350 to 400 sneakers at the Rally (in Bradford) each year,” Freer added.
She said the program also provided sneakers to the smaller districts such as Smethport and Otto-Eldred this year.
At the Blaisdell Foundation, Orris said he thinks Freer and Kicior have done an excellent job in chairing the program the past several years.
“They keep getting more and more requests from other schools within the county, and they’ve encouraged the community that if they want to expand the program, they can do this through the Blaisdell Foundation,” Orris explained. “It’s a lot of work to go out and buy (sneakers) and get them ready for the Rally.”
Orris said the Foundation is happy to help with the project as this is part of its mission, which is to take care of children in the area.
“We’re going to do that anyway that we can,” Orris remarked.
Freer added, “Every amount helps us put sneakers on a child in need. We would like to thank all the donors and businesses in the community that have helped us get to this point.”
To help Stepping Up for Kids, send donations to: Blaisdell Foundation, ATTN: Ron Orris, 2 Main Street, Suite 410, Bradford, PA 16701.
