This year the Grace Lutheran Church of Drumheller met the back-to-school need in the community with 26 pairs of new shoes.
According to Pastor Scott Gamble, the Lutheran congregation wanted to help lighten the load that back-to-school shopping puts on local families. When brainstorming how they could meet some of these needs, congregation member Lynn Hemming thought of shoes. Hemming looked around for programs that provided families with shoes and couldn’t find any. This is when they decided that shoes was where the need was.
“Lots of groups provide backpacks and supplies already,” Gamble said.
When Hemming put the word out on Facebook and through various connections, it exploded. There was huge support from the community. The post received over 100 shares and numerous phone calls of people either wanting to help or families expressing the need for shoes. The community and congregation donated the money to the “New Shoes for School” campaign. Twenty-six children received brand new shoes.
“It was just a joy for us to be able to share that. We got to meet a lot of families. We would meet a lot just at WalMart for the kids to try on the shoes and then we were able to buy the shoes for them. If a family wasn’t able to drive we would deliver the shoes to them.” Gamble said. “It was a joy to be invited into people’s lives and share a little bit of their struggles. One family was in the process of losing their home to foreclosure and had two high school kids. This was just one less thing for them to worry about.”
“We are looking forward to running the campaign again next year because there will always be a need,” Gamble explained. “It’s a joy to be able to share God’s love and show the community that we care.”
