Walk a mile without shoes

I heard a story this morning about a wonderful human being doing a wonderful act of kindness for people he doesn't even know. I know that ESPN can often tug at the heartstrings, but this kind of story is exactly what this blog is about. The beauty of sports...but not only the activities of sports, but the human beings that are apart of the sports world.

Coach Ron Hunter of IUPUI is going to coach the sidelines this evening in the Jaguars game against Oakland completely barefoot in hopes that he may bring attention to the fact that there are kids in this world that don't have any shoes at all. The coach of the Jags had started out with a goal of either collecting shoes or receiving donations to buys shoes for those underprivelaged children that are doing without. His number was 40,000 new pairs of shoes.

Coach Hunter said that they haven't even played the game yet, and they had raised enough for 30,000 pairs of shoes. It seemed to me that Coach Hunter was right on target to reach his modest goal. I call it modest because he had no idea how great and giving people can be. A representative of Converse was on another line, and she (Molly) had said that as soon as Converse heard of the efforts of the coach, they wanted to be a part of it immediately. Sure enough...much to coach's delight, Converse doanted 15,000 pairs of sneakers to the cause.

Coach Hunter's response to the generous gift was at first shock (you could hear it in the silence), then he realized that hey maybe I have something potentially big here. I might have the ability to make a difference in this world. A difference in 40,000 young lives out there in this world. I only wish I could touch so many people in a positive way such as that.

I would ask anyone who wonders what it would be like without shoes to walk around barefoot for a mile, a block, a couple of hundred feet. I know that you know it is going to hurt and feel like crap. But just thnk. You have the ability to go into your houses and put on a pair of shoes, and be comfortable. Those children without them will just have to "live" with it.