Lafayette Elementary Gets a Visit from GEICO Cares and Shoes That Fit
Every student went home with a new pair of shoes.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Email Adele
Every student at Fredericksburg City’s Lafayette Elementary School went home today with a new pair of sneakers, thanks to a partnership between GEICO and the nonprofit organization Shoes That Fit.
“I measured 600 pairs of feet this year,” said Danielle Livingston, school counselor at Lafayette Elementary. “Every baby in the school is getting a new pair of shoes today—and we’re going to do another order for any new students who came since the beginning of the year.”
Mac Stephens, director of social impact and philanthropy for GEICO Cares, said the company began partnering with Shoes That Fit in 2021.
“After the pandemic, teachers and counselors were letting us know that students were coming back to school with a lot of needs,” Stephens said. “Since then, we have donated 38,000 pairs of shoes across the U.S to schools in need.”
Worn or ill-fitting shoes are one of the most visible signs of poverty, Stephens said. A new pair of shoes can eliminate that stigma.
“When kids have new shoes, they play more and can concentrate more on learning,” he said.
Livingston used to work with Stephens at GEICO. When the two caught up earlier this year, Livingston talked about some of the need she saw among Lafayette students.
“He said, ‘Well, how about we give each kid a new pair of shoes?’” she recalled. “I was shocked—I mean, who does that? GEICO does.”
On Thursday morning, Lafayette students gathered by grade level groups in the cafeteria to get hyped up for their new shoes by principal Jacinta Calzada-Mayronne, the Lafayette Lion, the GEICO Gecko, GEICO employee volunteers, and volunteers with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority—which participated in the event by giving out toothbrushes and toothpaste.
“Delta Sigma Theta is an organization of 350,000 college-educated women, and service is at the heart of our organization,” said Ritta Armstead, president of the Fredericksburg-Area Alumnae Chapter. “Seeing the smiles of the kids here today blesses our hearts. We’re thankful that we got asked to be a part of this event to help the families.”
For Stephens, the new pair of shoes and dental hygiene products aren’t the only takeaways from Thursday’s event.
“With all these volunteers coming out to help, the kids get to see what a healthy community looks like,” he said.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”
Danielle Livingston is such a wonderful human being and Fredericksburg is lucky to have her! <3