She's back from her third trip giving out shoes around the world

Good morning, friends, this is Tennessean columnist Brad Schmitt , feeling high off all the good vibes of a packed week of good news. Let's get right to it!

The broken flip flop that spurred her into action

Does your company gather employees from time to time to do good in the community? The Tennessean has participated in several Hands on Nashville projects over the years, and I've always enjoyed those outings.

About seven years ago, Bank of America exec Kelly Harter of Nashville joined some colleagues at a warehouse for Nashville-based nonprofit Soles4Souls , which provides new and gently used shoes for disadvantaged folks worldwide. The nonprofit also provides shoes to those around the world who want to start their own shoe-selling businesses, whether in street markets or elsewhere, to enable at-risk people to generate their own incomes.

While Kelly and her colleagues helped sort shoes, a Soles4Souls staffer showed the volunteers an old, partial flip flop that a child had been wearing for months. Something about that troubled and touched Kelly, and she found herself going on her first overseas Soles4Souls distribution trip a year later.

Since then, Kelly, 58, has gone on a total of three overseas trips, the latest being last month to the Dominican Republic, where volunteers gave shoes to poor immigrants from neighboring Haiti.

There, Kelly and other volunteers distributed shoes to 750 children and helped set up adults in need to start sell shoes.

"The look on the children’s faces getting those shoes?" Kelly said. "You can’t describe it to anybody. It was the dirtiest, hottest day, but I don’t think my heart has ever been as full as when we left."

Kelly also has done her own shoes and clothes collecting for the nonprofit. She estimates that she has gathered more than 2,600 pairs of shoes and clothing items for Soles4Souls.

Here's a really cool new project from Backlight Productions

Y'all might remember me introducing you last year to Backlight Productions , a Nashville acting troupe made up of people with intellectual and development disabilities.

Last year, former Broadway star Laura Osnes joined them for a production of Cinderella at TPAC. (Even cooler, the stars of a national tour of "Wicked," playing in the bigger TPAC theater next door, visited the Backlight actors during rehearsal and took pics with them.)

This year, Backlight Productions is doing an original musical that was co-written by its actors. The musical, "It All Comes Out in the Wash," is about a troubled teen under house arrest who finds a pathway through space and time.

You can buy $20 tix for the 3 p.m. Sunday (Aug. 4) production at the Williamson County Performing Arts Center by going online to backlightproductions.org .

'We Are The World,' Metro Schools edition

Have y'all seen the brilliant Netflix documentary released this year on the 1985 star-studded "We are the World" fundraiser anthem for African famine relief?

Metro Nashville Public Schools released its own version, kinda sorta, yesterday morning. Two teachers and 11 students created the song/video "Every Student Known", a catchy musical reminder that each student has value and has a voice that should be heard. It's an upbeat, pop song with a rap bridge toward the end, and, of course, tons of harmonies.

Is Metro Nashville Schools Public Director Adrienne Battle, a Metro Schools alum herself, high-fiving students in the video? You betcha.

The students created the song and video during a four-day retreat last month at a Universal Music Group recording studio in Berry Hill.

Kinston Smith, 16, a rising junior at Nashville School of the Arts, contributed some lyrics and background vocals for the project.

The “I do believe, I do believe, I do believe, we will achieve” toward the end of the song? Yeah, that's Kinston's. He loved helping create the song and, well, he loves the finished product.

"I think it sounds really good. I just feel like it’s an inspirational song for myself," Kinston told me. "I mean, I really feel I’m seen and heard in the district."

Mission accomplished? So how was it in the studio?

"Honestly, the vibe felt like 'We are the world,' with all the headphones and microphones, and we all felt connected while we were singing it," he said.

For four minutes of feel good, click here to see "Every Student Known."

Thanks for spending another week with me and The Good News with Brad Schmitt. Your friends can sign up for this emailed newsletter at tennessean.com/goodnews . And please, I'd love to hear what's good in your part of Tennessee. Find me at brad@tennessean.com .

Dig into more feel-good stories below.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: She's back from her third trip giving out shoes around the world