Happy feet, happy children – Rotary Club of Orangeburg provides new shoes

The program, which is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Orangeburg, provided 92 students from the Orangeburg County School District with a new pair of shoes on Oct. 30.

Guidance counselors at the children’s schools selected them for participation in the program. 

The Rotary Club is involved in important projects across the world, including trying to eliminate polio. But the Happy Feet program allows local Rotary members to see their efforts at work.

“Rotary has done this since 2014. The kids this year are just overwhelmed. … I’ve never seen happier children,” said Meredith Baker, “Happy Feet” chairperson for the Rotary Club of Orangeburg.

The club has participated in the program with the help of a matching grant from Rotary International District 7770.

Baker said Hibbett Sports has partnered with the Rotary Club of Orangeburg for the past three years. Hibbett Sports provides the shoes at a discount rate to help make the program a success.

Other participating partners who helped make the program a reality include the following: Orangeburg County School District; Orangeburg Coca-Cola Bottling Co.; Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center; Antley’s Bar-B-Q, and The Tiffany Grant Foundation. The local nonprofit foundation, for example, provided socks for the “Happy Feet” initiative.

“Our motto is service above self. We are a club that feels like giving back is more important than getting. So we organized to do Happy Feet. We have several fundraisers during the year, but this is our biggest giveaway,” Baker said.

She continued, “This is the thing that everybody looks forward to the most because it’s really the most gratifying thing to see these kids that need these shoes and normally would not be able to maybe get a pair of Nikes, or whatever.”

An Edisto Elementary student said he was very proud of his new shoes and thankful to get them.

“I like them. They look cool, and I like the color. I love how they fit,” he said.

James McQuilla, president of the Rotary Club of Orangeburg, said the “Happy Feet” program is one way to focus on local needs.

“What we’re supposed to be doing in this community more than anything else is serving. We have at least four major projects that we do to serve the community. This is one we do every year,” he said.

The children served are benefited in more ways than one, he said.

“It makes them happy, it makes them proud and it shows the Rotary members that we need to remember why we meet every Tuesday at 1 p.m. It’s not for networking, it’s not to put on our resume that we’re Rotarians. It’s to find out who in our community needs help,” McQuilla said.

“We need to constantly continue to look for ways to serve our community,” he said.