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Shoe bank soothes soles

Outreach pairs sneakers with children in need

Courtesy photos by Joe Chestney Kyah Rodgers, 9, and Kavion Rodgers, 7, look at the shoes available at Angel Feet Ministries. The outreach tries to meet the needs of area children by providing them with new sneakers in a color and style they like.

As the summer wanes, parents start thinking about the essentials their kids will need to start a new school year.

Sneakers are often among the “must have” items for kids who find that shoes that fit in the spring are too snug for comfort a few months later.

For families on a limited income, new shoes for their children may stretch the budget.

That’s where Angel Feet steps in.

The ministry of Juniata United Methodist Church offers free new sneakers to infants through sixth-grade students who live in Blair County.

Families who register with the ministry are entitled to two free pairs of sneakers per year per child.

Melvin Owens, who along with his wife is raising six grandchildren, calls Angel Feet a blessing.

With the children ranging in age from 3 to 12, Owens of Altoona said it means a lot to not have to continually buy sneakers.

“Their feet grow so much,” he said. “The oldest one can wear her grandmother’s sneakers.”

And while not all the styles and varieties of a store are in stock, the kids don’t mind.

“They have a lot of choices in my size,” said 10-year-old Kyle Rodgers. “I can get a pair I really like.”

His sister, Kamya, 12, said she likes either pink or blue sneakers.

“I like coming here (to Angel Feet),” she said, adding that her preferences are usually in stock.

In order to receive shoes, families must meet certain criteria. Children must be receiving medical assistance, be enrolled in the state’s CHIP health care program or be referred by a school or agency. As long as they meet the guidelines, families may register to bring children to be fitted for shoes every six months.

The program was started by Dee Martin-Spallone after she heard the Rev. Dr. Joe Faulkner mention a shoe bank program at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in State College during a sermon about 10 years ago. Martin-Spallone visited the shoe bank with Faulkner’s wife, Barbara, as her host. Both Faulkners are now deceased, but the shoe bank in Centre County continues to thrive.

“Barbara Faulkner had a dream for her area to start a shoe bank for children,” Martin-Spallone said.

Martin-Spallone wanted the same opportunity for children in Blair County. Both women saw the need for children to have brand new shoes.

“Barbara never liked the idea of hand-me down shoes,” Martin-Spallone said. “She would say, ‘children need to fit in their own shoes with their own feet.'”

When she first learned about the project in State College, Martin-Spallone was attending an Altoona church which was in transition and not prepared to take on the ministry.

After a while, she started attending Juniata United Methodist Church, 808 N. Fourth St., where she presented the idea to the outreach committee in May 2012.

The ministry was approved in 2012, and officially launched in April 2013. During the past four years, more than 3,500 pairs of shoes have been distributed to more than 1,600 children.

To accommodate the need for sneakers, the ministry has expanded from its initial crammed quarters in a basement foyer that includes a stairway. Shoe boxes were stacked along the outer walls and the room contained a table to register families and chairs to accommodate five or six people. The line of families started at the bottom of the steps and ended on the church lawn outside the door.

Eventually, JUMC Angel Feet expanded to the adjoining youth fellowship room, which was divided into a classroom and a space for Angel Feet to sort shoes on racks and store others in boxes along the wall separating it from the classroom. Youth fellowship moved to another area of the church.

Families interested in the program need to register in advance with Bill Ellick, chairman of the outreach program, by calling the church at 942-6065. Once Ellick has determined eligibility, he schedules an appointment for the family. Most appointments are available from 10 a.m. to noon or 1 to 3 p.m. (during busy times) on Saturdays, with other times set to accommodate families if necessary.

Although Ellick makes reminder calls to volunteers and families the night before their appointments, the families themselves make a point to make sure their children receive new shoes. He said families without vehicles will take the bus, get rides or walk.

“In December two years ago, a family walked in the snow to get there,” he said. “Another family, who had children in strollers, walked across the Eighth Street Bridge from the East End. Some parents really care. They want their kids to get shoes.”

When the families arrive, parents are asked the sizes of shoes each child wears to help the volunteer get a starting point, but each child’s foot is also measured. The shoes are fitted to each child’s feet with a little bit of room for growth.

The child then tells the volunteer what color he or she likes.

“The children tell us their preferences,” said Donna Chestney, a volunteer with the program for five years. “We try to please.”

In return, Chestney said she receives an intangible gift.

“When I see the children smile when they get new shoes, it gives me a warm feeling. It’s rewarding,” she said.

And sometimes, Angel Feet will go the extra mile to accommodate a child, because half sizes and wide shoes are not always in stock.

If that is what a child needs, Angel Feet will make an effort to get it, Martin-Spallone said, adding that children who are handicapped or in a wheelchair are also fitted.

“We work it out,” Martin-Spallone said, who shared the importance of children getting shoes that fit.

She recalled Angel Feet being able to properly fit a boy whose size 12 feet were crammed into size 9 shoes and another child whose shoes lacked insoles.

“One boy’s toe was totally out of his shoe,” Ellick said.

The “angel” who helps make the footwear transformations possible by bringing shoes to the bank is volunteer Sally Stoltz.

“In the past three years, she has saved $48,000 over the original prices,” Martin-Spallone said. She said Stoltz scouts stores every couple of weeks that sell sneakers and buys about 50 pairs at a time.

Stoltz recently restocked the bank with 130 pairs of sneakers in two days, Ellick said.

“She is always looking for a bargain,” he said.

Martin-Spallone said other people look for deals, and she could not do it without the team. Ellick, who also schedules the volunteers’ hours, said about 20 people assist in measuring the children’s feet and locating shoes to fit them.

He said Martin-Spallone is the coordinator, and he is the scheduler. Although he devotes hours to the work, he does not mind.

“I enjoy this,” Ellick said. “It’s not work. It’s a calling. It’s what God wants me to do.”

In addition to helping the children, volunteers also do an inventory each week to determine what sizes they need to replenish.

Money to buy the shoes comes from various grants and private donations. A three-year grant from the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church was used to purchase the sneakers for 2014-16. Other grants have been received from the Blair County Health and Welfare Council and Coventry Care Insurance. Altoona Sunrise Rotary held a fundraiser with some funds earmarked for the program and the Central Pennsylvania Community Program as well as churches and private donors have supplemented it.

JUMC Angel Feet also participates in Boscov’s Friends Helping Friends Day, which will be held Oct. 17. For a $5 donation to the ministry, shoppers get a 25 percent off shopping pass for that day at the store.

Along with new sneakers, children receive free socks, courtesy of other churches in the Susquehanna conference, and select a free book to take home through First Book, a nonprofit social enterprise that provides new books, learning materials and other essentials to children in need, based in Washington, D.C.

Martin-Spallone said the book giveaway was initiated after the Altoona Story League donated money for books. Above the book display is a picture that Martin-Spallone saw in her mind and prayed about having. She wanted a picture of Jesus surrounded by children in modern-day clothes.

The owner of Image Signs, who designed the Angel Feet logo and also painted Scripture on the walls of Angel Feet’s additional room, gave her the picture.

“She didn’t know what I wanted in my head,” Martin-Spallone said, but the image is just right for the ministry.

Not only are the children wearing blue jeans, they are wearing sneakers.

Above the art is the verse Mark 9:37: “Whosoever welcomes a child such as this, in my name, welcomes me.”

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