VCU news

By Jake Burns
VCU Police

More than doubling their donations from last year, students, faculty and staff at Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health provided more than 500 pairs of shoes to public school students in Central Virginia through this year’s 7 City Shoe Drive.

Led by the VCU Division of Community Engagement, the shoe drive celebration was held Feb. 28 at the division’s Mary and Frances Youth Center, which offers youth programming and educational training workshops for youth educators. VCU partners with the nonprofit Winter’s Place, founded by 10-year-old Winter Davis and her mother, Kendra Barner.

Winter and her mother started their organization in Hampton Roads after Winter realized some of her friends lacked adequate footwear in the winter months. This is the second year of the 7 City Shoe Drive at VCU; more than 200 pairs were donated last year.

At the Feb. 28 celebration, VCU employees, volunteers and VCU Police/Safety Ambassadors distributed the new and gently used shoes to five schools and youth organizations in Richmond and Henrico County.

“Something that’s very important to us is presence, compassion and being able to share our resources,” said Verenda Cobbs, senior manager for civic innovation and partnerships with the Division of Community Engagement. “We collected 500 this year. I would love to see 1,000 next year.”

VCU Police and VCU Safety Ambassadors – an unarmed, civilian team of public safety officials who respond to calls that do not require a sworn police officer – also took an active role in collecting shoes for the drive, said Brian Sussman, the VCU Safety Ambassadors supervisor.

“Even if it’s a simple pair of shoes for most, this is a big deal for those kids,” Sussman said. “This coincides with what the Safety Ambassador team is here to do: We don’t just take calls for service with the police department; we also engage the community.”

The partnerships continue to grow for the shoe drive. In addition to its youth center and local faith groups, Community Engagement worked with the VCU Office of the President, School of Medicine, School of Health Professions, VCU Police and Athletics to collect shoes. Cobbs said the VCU tennis team and basketball squads donated shoes to the cause.

“We know that our families and our communities and our city are resilient, so we want to be able to connect with that resilience,” she said – and “to continue to show up – with all the things that are going on in the world – and let folks know that as an institution, VCU is here, and we’re committed to supporting community engagement with our presence and with our passion.”

Anyone interested in partnering on the 7 City Shoe Drive next year can reach out to Cobbs or check resources at community.vcu.edu.