BILLINGS- — St. Vincent Healthcare gave shoes to students at Broadwater Elementary School on Thursday.
The shoes came from a partnership with the Kohls department, which gives the hospital a $25,000 grant annually.
St. V’s disperses all that money to schools that are classified as Title One, meaning they are in areas with higher poverty rates. Beyond that, they connect with the school staff, who better identify which students would benefit the most from new shoes.
“We just want to make sure the shoes don’t become a barrier to them being a kid,” says Justin Huck, the principal of Broadwater.
St. V’s distributed roughly 25 pairs of shoes to students on Thursday and hopes to make it even more in the future.
“We have more at the foundation, so our plan is that in the fall we’re going to go to every Title One school and hopefully give out hundreds and hundreds,” says Irion.
School officially ends next week in Billings so the foundation made sure to deliver shoes before the students stopped showing up.
“In the spring, we like to give the kids new shoes before it hits summer so they have a new pair of shoes that they can go outside with. We’re encouraging going to the park, going to play basketball,” say’s Megan Irion, the senior director of development at the St. V’s foundation.
