Shoes for Kids helps needy newcomers

By Lethbridge Herald on July 21, 2023.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman President of Shoes for kids YQL, Mallory Kristjanson and Lethbridge Family Services youth Services program manager, Vic Rizal celebrate the organizations second annual partnership Friday at the LFS Angel Tree office.

Alejandra Pulido Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

Shoes for kids YQL Foundation and Lethbridge Family Services have announced their second annual partnership to provide new pair of shoes to children new to Canada who are in need.  

President of Shoes for kids YQL Foundation, Mallory Kristjanson spoke to media Friday and said they were excited to partner up with LFS once again, to help newcomer families to Canada provide new runners for their children. 

“We support the work that LFS does for all the new to Canada families, the newcomer families, because we think that it is so important that every single child and youth in this community goes back to school with a brand new pair of shoes and the team at LFS is not only dedicated to newcomer families, but specifically to the children and youth that we don’t want to fall through the cracks,” said Kristjanson. 

She said the beautiful thing about their initiative is that it is year-round, and if there is a family that comes to Canada throughout the year and their children and youth are in need of brand new shoes, Shoes for kids YQL will support them.

Manager for the youth services program at LFS, Vic Rizal said he is very grateful to the Shoes for YQL team for their support and is happy to partner up with them once again. 

“I think it’s very difficult for a newcomer child; there is a very huge gap between newcomer kid and a kid that’s been here for a long time, their need to fit in is really huge and also there is a lot of hesitations for kids when they do not have proper clothes to go to school,” said Rizal. 

He said that in many different countries where some of the families they help come from, children attend school in uniform, so coming here being required to have clothes and shoes for school can become overwhelming for families with the current increased prices and inflation. 

“I think an initiative like this is super neat and awesome to empower the youth and also help encourage them to go to school on a regular basis, and also helps to make friends, as well as it serves the purpose of need to fit in,” said Rizal. 

He said last year they were able to help between 80 to 90 children and youth get a new pair of runners and it was very rewarding to see their reactions. 

“I don’t have words to describe how happy they were, their faces, their smiles, but I can totally tell you that they were thrilled to get new kicks and be able to go for different programming and also go to school,” said Rizal. 

Kristjanson said LFS not only is distributing shoes this year, but also agreed to become a drop off location at their main office and the Angel Tree office. 

She said other drop-off locations are Freddy’s Paint, Lethbridge Police Service, Northside Little Caesar’s, The Medicine Shoppe pharmacy by the hospital, and HiTech Bracing. 

“We are so thankful for the community that has already stepped up, not only with financial donations, but also by opening their door to be drop-off venues,” said Kristjanson. 

She said so far they have received over $14,000 in monetary donations, but they are still in need of $6,000 to reach their $20,000 goal. 

“With the support of our community, we are very optimistic that we’re going to get there,” said Kristjanson. 

Monetary donations are accepted at any Royal Bank branch in Lethbridge under Shoes for Kids YQL. Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter