I had twenty-one three-year-olds in my Florida Pre-Kindergarten class. They were
beautiful bright children who were eager to learn. Most of the children were
from single-parent homes. Wages in Florida were terrible and some parent's felt
lucky to have enough money left over during the week to buy groceries much less
anything extra. Due to Florida's mild climate, parents could save lots of money
on clothing for their children. So shorts and tee shirts were the uniform on
most days.
Now shoes were another story. The children would come in with all kinds of
footgear. Some of the children came to school with their older brother or
sister's shoes outgrown shoes on. Too little for the older sibling but still too
big for the little ones. Others came in wearing what we used to call flip-flops,
those little rubber thong type sandals that many of us wore to the beach to keep
the sand from burning our feet. Though we lived in Florida and we were blessed
with many hot, sultry days, there was many a day when the weather would get a
little too cool for these types of shoes.
Seeing these children day after day at school with such desire to learn was a
wonderful experience and they brought me much joy. I was always trying to think
of something I could do for them that would give back some of the love they had
given me. Thus, the Shoe Man was born.
One day after leaving school, I stopped in the local department store and looked
at children's shoes. Wow!! The prices were out of sight! In shock and not sure
how I was going to pull this off, I headed to our local Target store. I went
straight to the Children's Shoe Department and almost fell over a huge table
filled with shoes they had just marked down to Clearance! My goodness, my
guardian angel was looking over me that day!!
I started filling my basket with all kinds of shoes, little pink ones with bows,
sandals, boots that either boys or girls could wear and athletic shoes. By the
time I was done, I had over 30 pairs of shoes! As I was throwing the shoes in my
basket, I was trying to add up the prices, to get an idea of how much this was
going to cost. Finally, I gave up trying to add the prices up in my head; I had
just gotten paid, so it didn't matter what the cost would be. The Shoe Man was
in business!!
When I rolled up to the checkout counter with my basket filled to the top with
shoes, the clerk did a double take. She then asked me how many children I had. I
proudly looked at her and said, "Twenty-one three-year-olds, Ma'am!"
You could see her thinking about that. She was left speechless and just shook
her head. She bagged my purchase and as I turned to go, she was still standing
there and shaking her head.
The next morning the teacher assistant, twenty-one little students and I headed
off to eat our breakfast in the cafeteria. The assistant and I decided that
after breakfast she would take the children the long way back to the classroom
so I would have a few extra minutes before they arrived. I went to the front of
the room and sat down on our floor. The children filed in, went to the front of
the classroom and sat down on the rug forming a circle around me.
In front of me sat three huge bags, but no one said a word. I began by telling
the children that I had a visit the day before by this very kind old man who
made shoes. The man had come to me because he knew I had the smartest group of
three-year olds in Sally Jones Elementary. And he had lots of kid's shoes just
lying around his workshop that he didn't know what to do with them. He came to
me thinking I might have an idea. With a big grin on my face, I looked out at
twenty-one little faces filled with wonder and amazement that there was such a
thing as The Shoe Man, and told them, "Yep, I knew what you can do with them.
You could give them to me!" With that, I opened the first bag and pulled out
some shoes! And with a hand full of shoes, I told the kids, "And now I am going
to give those shoes to all of you!"
You would have thought it was Christmas for these children. We grabbed some
extra pairs of socks that the Shoe Man just so happened to include and everyone
started taking off what gear they were wearing on their feet and started helping
each other put on the new shoes!! We had enough shoes to go around for everyone
and even had a few extra pairs that could go home to siblings. My guardian angel
was at the Target Store that day!!
This was such a wonderful and rewarding experience and brought so much joy to my
heart. It is something I will not soon forget. I hope that everyone out there
realizes how much joy they can bring to a child's life by doing something as
simple as creating, The Shoe Man.
By the way, if you find the Hat, Coat and Mitten Man or the New Clothes for
School Man, would you send him my way........
© 2000 Cheri Lee Funk cher_428@hotmail.com
___________________________________________
Cheri lives in a beautiful little town on the east coast called Southport, NC.
She is still trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up...but
in the interim she enjoys the ocean and writing poetry, short stories and a
group of online e-zines called HeartTalk. You can reach her through her web page
at http://www.angelfire.com/nc3/HeartTalk/ or her email at
cher_428@hotmail.com
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