Students go without shoes for ‘One Day’ to raise awareness

The Fashion Forum hosted TOMS’ “One Day Without Shoes” event April 10 in an effort to raise awareness of people who are not fortunate enough to have a pair of shoes. The event involved participants who went barefoot for an entire day.

Campus felt the soft trod of many pairs of bare feet April 10 in recognition of “One Day Without Shoes” sponsored by TOMS and hosted by the Fashion Forum.

The event was initiated to raise awareness of children and adolescents that are unable to buy shoes for themselves and are forced to go without.

“There’s millions of kids all over the world without shoes and today is a day to remember that,” said Pam Scheske, president of Fashion Forum. “We’re not the only campus doing it. The more people get involved, the bigger it’s going to be.”

The Fashion Forum had a booth set up in the breezeway by Stevens Hall. They were giving away TOMS merchandise, such as T-shirts, koozies and bumper stickers to students who came with no shoes.

Some students were unaware of any special occasion.

Junior Nathan Flippo took his shoes off simply because members of the Fashion Forum told him to. He quickly became appreciative of the event.

“It’s a unique way to spread awareness, rather than handing out cards for an organization,” Flippo said. “You’ve got to figure out what’s going on by asking, and that’s a good way to raise awareness.”

Pierre-Alexandre Jamot, a sophomore from France, agrees that the unorthodox nature of the event is effective, but he worries about its reach.

“It shocks people, which is a good thing because it makes you react,” he said. “It should be more obvious. You should understand why people aren’t wearing shoes right away.”

Scheske said this event was big with the Fashion Forum.

“This is one event that people want to get involved with, so we really push this,” she said. “We’ve got a small club, so we all kind of work together.

I think we can at least get more people to ask about it – it’s all about just raising awareness.”