Dear editor, I wanted to share this wonderful story that truly captures the work that the folks do each and everyday, through Stephen’s Backpacks Society. Bless you.
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with a single mother staying at Inn from the Cold whose five-year-old son had just received shoes from Stephen’s Backpacks to return to school this fall - one pair for indoors and one for outdoors.
The mother told me that her son had never had new shoes and was alternately wearing one pair to bed and placing the other under his pillow at night.
The third night she told her son that the shoes were too dirty to wear to bed so now before he goes to bed at night he carefully washes them and the first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning is touches them because he cannot fully comprehend that they are actually his.
Today this family received housing – the first thing the boy asked was if he could keep his shoes.
This misted my eyes as I began to truly understand the quote, “judge not a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.”
Now everyday when I choose a pair of heels or flip flops to put on, I am grateful that I have a choice and I am not quite so callous when I kick them off when I get home.
It is truly the simple things in life that make the most difference – the truth that is shared between one child and another – the gift of a pair of shoes. Thank you Stephen, for knowing this.
Yvette, Inn from the Cold
