Giving kids hope one pair of shoes at a time

Hays Cares, along with other community partners, hosted its Shoes of Hope event in which it doled out over 600 pairs of shoes to area youth.
Photos courtesy of Hays Cares

Below, Hays Cares President Pastor James Jacobs and Hays Cares Vice President Jeremy Jacobs.
Photos courtesy of Hays Cares

A new pair of shoes can both bolster a child’s self confidence and get them where they need to go to reach their highest potential. Hays Cares, in partnership with Word of Life Christian Faith Center, hosted the Shoes of Hope event on Saturday at McCormick Middle School in Buda in which 665 pairs of new shoes were given for free to area youth. The event is held annually on the last Saturday in July.

Pastor James Jacobs, of Word of Life Christian Faith Center, is the President of Hays Cares, a nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire hope and provide educational and economic resources to the underserved communities of Hays County, said the group began partnering with Samaritan’s Feet International in 2018 and would wash the children’s feet before providing them with a new pair of shoes. During the pandemic, Hays Cares removed the washing portion of the service and began just supplying the shoes.

“It was founded on that idea from Samaritan's Feet,” Jacobs said, adding that Samaritan’s Feet supplies shoes to children to protect feet from contaminated soil and against diseases. “That's why we focus on shoes because we want to inspire hope and encourage young people to do better in school and to do better in life.”

Jacobs informs people of the event in several ways. It is posted online and flyers are given out to all of the local elementary schools to be given to the kids to take home.

“We have an opening date from June 7 to July 1 to sign up for the shoes. We actually had 411 people sign up,” Jacobs said, adding that there were 180 walk-ins on the day of. “After doing this so long …I usually have about 100 to 150 extra pairs of shoes every time just in case.”

Luckily, Jacobs had approximately 200 extra pairs of shoes this year, which ensured that every child in need received a pair.

For more information, visit hayscares.org/index. html.