KALAMAZOO, Mich.–The First Day Shoe Fund, a Kalamazoo-based nonprofit that provides new athletic shoes to K-5 students in Kalamazoo and Comstock Public Schools. ECCU chose the nonprofit to receive a $1,500 donation for its annual Back-To-School drive.
To help raise awareness of the organization, ECCU created a simple online goal: Attain 1,500 likes, shares, retweets and favorites of the message on Facebook and Twitter. It only took two weeks before the goal was exceeded and a giant check was presented to The First Day Shoe Fund’s Executive Director, Heather Haigh.
Just how far will $1,500 go when it comes to purchasing new shoes for children? Farther than you’d imagine, says Haigh. They work with several different companies that provide shoes at a discounted rate. “This generous donation will help us buy about 125 pairs of shoes.”
“If you give people an opportunity to easily support an awesome local cause, they’ll do it,” reflects Jamie Woodburn, ECCU’s social media specialist, who later volunteered to help bag shoes for individual students. “It takes one second to like and share a post…it can’t get much easier than that. It really exemplifies the ‘people helping people’ credit union philosophy.”