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American Cancer Society
First Day Shoe Fund
First Day Shoe Fund is dedicated to providing new athletic shoes to elementary students in need at Kalamazoo County public schools. We believe all students should start school on equal footing. Since 2006, FDSF has been distributing new athletic shoes to students in our community; in 2021 we gave out over 5,200 pairs of shoes to students in need. That means that thousands of students were able to enter their classrooms comfortable and confident and participate fully in gym and recess because of our amazing community supporters.
Never has our service been more important than in the past few years with COVID-19, high unemployment and rising inflation. Families tell us every year how a new pair of shoes positively impacts their student. " My husband lost his job (sole income for the household) shortly before the start of the school year and we were unable to afford properly fitting shoes for our oldest son. This program was a huge blessing to our family. I don't know how we would have been able to get shoes for our son otherwise". FDSF Family 2021
Our Fall distribution will take place in September/early October 2022 once the students are back in class and we anticipate that this will be our largest distribution to date. We are grateful to Zeigler for becoming a school sponsor for 2022; this support will enable us to continue to expand our vital service.
To learn more about First Day Shoe Fund, please visit firstdayshoefund.org
