Fund to provide shoes for Clay County children
By Marcia Barnes
Staff Writer
On any given day a student’s shoe can fall apart. One scenario might be the energetic middle school student who returns to the classroom from the playground with the sole of a shoe flapping open, socks or toes exposed.
What could happen next is the parent is called and the student is out-of-school missing important educational time. This is one scenario Hannah Miller, executive director at Clay County Community for Students, is trying to avoid.
Typically, a site coordinator at the school who is employed by Clay County Community for Students will call the student to the office and bring a couple of shoe sizes. This is the Band-Aid. If their socks are worn or they don’t have any, new socks accompany a new or lightly used pair of shoes.
“We’ve assisted 10 children so far this year and we’re only half-way through the school year,” Miller said. “There is a need that sometimes goes unrecognized because crises don’t happen just during the eight-hour work day.”
Miller said that no matter what age or grade level, students leave with a big grin. If lightly used emergency shoes are replaced later with a new pair, the student has a new pair of shoes and a spare.
Grins are close to getting bigger for students in need of shoes. Help is getting closer for teachers, assistant teachers, volunteers and mentors who see children in shoes too small and pinching toes painfully. There are students wearing inadequate shoes and sometimes, no shoes for siblings who are too young to be enrolled in school.
A grass-roots fund, Go the Extra Mile Today, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization was extended to Clay County Schools on Tuesday, Feb. 4, when Mary Jo Dyer, marketing director at State Farm Insurance Agency in Murphy made the formal presentation to Superintendent Melissa Godfrey and included Clay County Schools in the program.
The simplicity of how this began and the generosity which followed is an amazing story of community. After hearing a broadcast on National Public Radio about children who need shoes and how a community can help, Betsy Lane who was a State Farm Insurance agent started collecting donations to provide shoes to students in Cherokee County. Customers, friends and families donated, then the donations were delivered to the Cherokee County Board of Education.
Lane retired in 2011, when the State Farm Insurance Agency in Murphy was handed over to her son-in-law, Steven Aft. When the business torch was passed to Aft, he also took up the cause of providing shoes to kids. He collected donations by circulating fliers, placing newspaper ads and sending out a call for help online.
In October 2022, Harrah’s Employees Reaching Out donated more than $11,000 from ticket redemption. This was matched by an anonymous donor and the shoe fund grew another $10,000 to help children get the shoes they need in Cherokee County.
Last year, the Extra Mile Shoe Fund spilled over into Graham County. Through the continued efforts of Aft and Dyer to expand this generous spirit throughout the mountains, it is now here in Clay County.
As each community supports the effort, funds from a county go directly to helping those students within that county. The money to support the fund will come from the generosity of Clay County. This is worth it to everyone who lives here.
Cards providing information on the fund and how to donate can already be found at the schools, businesses and the Clay County Progress office. Checks may be written to Clay County Community for Students and mailed to CCCFS, P. O. Box 642, Hayesville, N.C., 28904.