A Cry for Help for Style Your Soles

Thursday, December 17

The Dick Pope/Polk County Chapter and Florida Southern College are partnering with Lighthouse Ministries, Inc., Salvation Army-Lakeland and Lake Wales Center to provide white, canvas TOMS Shoes to preschool and grade school children.

TOMS Shoes, Inc. was founded by Blake Mycoskie on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. By the end of 2009, TOMS will have given over 500,000 pairs of new shoes to children in need all around the world, including at home in the U.S.

Blake has been profiled in People, The Oprah Magazine, Readers Digest, TIME, Vogue, US, In Style, Lucky and many other media outlets. To learn more visit www.tomsshoes.com.

The DP/PC Chapters anticipated goal is to provide TOMS shoes to children in the three Polk County shelters listed above and TOMS will provide an additional pair to children in the U.S. or internationally. Most children in developing countries grow up barefoot and their primary mode of transportation is walking thus, as is proven, more illnesses and infections are picked up by bare feet!

We are asking local businesses to Give A Gift That Gives; donate $ to purchase X amount of TOMS shoes that will then be donated to a local shelter (i.e. Lighthouse Ministries, Salvation Army- Lakeland and Lake Wales Center) so children can design their brand new shoes. This way local businesses are not only purchasing shoes for someone locally in Polk County, but also internationally!

I have attached DP/PC FPRAs letter and sponsorship levels for more information.

Please share this information with your organization and others!

We look forward to your support of this joint community project which will help meet the needs of children locally and internationally.

For more information, please contact Shirley Whitney at rwhitney1@tampabay.rr.com.

- Teresa O'Brien, Vice President

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