If the shoe fits, kids have a chance

A warm bed.

A roof over your head.

A hot meal.

Adequate clothing.

There’s a reason these are considered basics in life. They’re only a starting point meant to satisfy the very most fundamental needs. Fail to fulfill any of these basics and all of a sudden, simple obstacles and challenges can become insurmountable.

It’s our hope that at some point in your life, you’ve dealt with uncomfortable shoes. Maybe they were too small or too large, too cheap, too worn out. Maybe they had a hole in the sole that sucked up cold rain and snow like a siphon. If you’ve been there/worn that, you’ll have some sense of how much people take decent shoes for granted until they don’t have them.

Now imagine that you’re a child with shoes that can’t get the job done. Not only are they impractical or worse, but you’ve got the stigma of wearing ugly, beat-up sneakers that might as well have spotlights on them wherever you go.

It’s not fair, but it’s real. As our story on Tuesday showed so painfully, many of our elementary-age kids are going to school with inadequate shoes on their feet. And we’re not talking trendy. Many of these shoes, the bottoms are torn out, tongues missing, holes abundant.

At Borah Elementary, where many of the students come from poverty or near poverty, the problem is profound. But two men, wheelchair-bound volunteer Wayne Juneau and school counselor Adam Foote, have come to the rescue. They’ve been raising money to put decent shoes on students’ feet, and the program is growing. They’ve created a way for people to donate electronically — https://www.gofundme.com/souls4kids — or people may contact the school directly to see how they can help. The phone number is 664-5844.

We applaud Mr. Juneau and Mr. Foote - a perfectly named shoe advocate if ever there was one — but suggest more needs to be done.

We call on churches and service groups throughout Kootenai County to see how they might help ensure every child has a decent pair of shoes shortly after school opens in September. Directly contacting schools nearest your church or service club would be a great start to assess need. Maybe by purchasing in bulk, better prices can be found.

Kids can’t concentrate when they go to school hungry. Many of these same children are sitting there with sore or wet feet.

As a community, let’s ensure their basic needs are being met.