By David Fleet
Editor
Allison Kirby is making a difference one step at a time.
For the second consecutive year, Cedarville University nursing students will partner with Shoes 4 the Shoeless, a nonprofit ministry that distributes new shoes and socks to children, to assist impoverished youth in the Miami Valley, Ohio. Kirby an Atlas Township native will be one of the students serving from Cedarville.
“Every Friday I try to help,” said Kirby. “This ministry is very important, it’s sad that here in American we have these problems for the children. I want to do what I can to help.
According to Shoes 4 the Shoeless website, 40.9 percent of children in Montgomery County live in poverty and do not own proper shoes. Shoes 4 the Shoeless seeks to ensure that no child endures physical or emotional distress that transpires from wearing inadequate socks and shoes.
Kirby, a junior at the Cedarville School of Nursing, was home schooled and graduated in 2017. She will complete her nursing degree in 2022 and work hopes to work in an emergency room.
The nursing students will measure the children’s feet for the proper shoe size.
“There was child that came in wearing his grandmother’s shoes because that’s all they had,” she said. “When the get new shoes their face just lights up. The choose the color and style too. They are just so excited, it boosts their confidence. This ministry is so important because we get to fulfill a physical need in a child’s life as well as an emotional and spiritual need.”
Allison is the daughter of Donna and Perry Kirby of Atlas Township