Delaware nonprofit Shoes That Fit helps more students with new funding

Earlier this year, Joanne Glauser didn’t know if her organization would have a future.

“Without more support in Delaware, it could have died with me,” Glauser told Delaware Online/The News Journal over the winter break. She described her chapter of Shoes That Fit — a nonprofit that has provided free shoes to Delaware college students experiencing homelessness since the late 1990s — in an article published in the New Year.

But someone was listening.

“We talked in board meetings about trying to find something tangible to base our mission on — because it’s not very sexy to say we support children, young adults and first responders in Delaware, right?” said Jeff Leggett, president of the nonprofit Friends of Fusion Foundation since its inception in 2019. “We kept coming back to the idea of sneakers.”

After one such board meeting in February, founder Nic DeCaire began researching. Almost immediately, the former Newark fitness center owner found an article about Shoes That Fit.

“We didn’t know Joanne, but when you do something for 26 years, you know you’re passionate about it,” DeCaire said. “And we knew she was probably the right person to approach. We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. We just wanted to help kids.”

Fusion partnered with Glauser to finish the school year. This spring, the team reported that they had donated shoes to more than 600 students at risk of homelessness in all three Delaware counties. And they’re not done yet.

This summer, they plan to support all of the nearly 3,300 homeless students statewide through the next school year by offering them a free pair of designer sneakers. Organizers say that means a goal of about $100,000 to raise in the warmer months. By the end of June, they had raised about $41,000.

But this is about more than just shoes.

Flashback: Delaware nonprofit that plans to provide students with ‘shoes that fit’ unclear next steps

Why does anyone care?

“I think people would be amazed at the things that we might think are small things that keep a child from going to school,” April Anderson, special needs liaison for the Red Clay School District, told Delaware Online/The News Journal earlier this year.

Some barriers would be obvious, from transportation to school if displaced to help waiting for foster care placement or getting their next meal. Others are small, like what to wear.

“Everybody looks at other people’s shoes,” DeCaire said. “And if you’re in a classroom full of kids and you notice that one person’s shoes are really old, really dirty or have holes in them — kids can assume they have problems, right? And by eliminating that, you put them on the same playing field.”

From back-to-school events and supply closets to ongoing fundraising and ongoing partnerships with schools, Shoes That Fit and Friends of Fusion Foundation plan to continue the mission Glauser and her husband began in 1999. It will begin by funding new shoes for every student who does not have a stable home.

Districts across the state must cover their own costs, which amounts to nearly 2.5% of all public school students, or about 3,400 in 2022, according to the National Center for Homeless Education.

Glauser continues to seek out more partnerships, particularly in Sussex County. He may soon feel comfortable retiring.

“I just feel like the stars aligned,” she said, thinking about this spring. “But to serve all the homeless kids in Delaware? I’ve never been able to do that before.”

Got a story? Kelly Powers covers race, culture and equity for Delaware Online and USA TODAY Network Northeast, with a focus on education. Contact her at [email protected] or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01.