I really like TOMS. Not just the shoes. But also what they do for children all over the world. I heard about TOMS a year and a half ago when a girl from my high school interned with them. I checked out their site and loved what they were doing!
One Day Without Shoes is an incredibly awesome way to get people excited about TOMS and their One for One campaign. So, in addition to working with my friends in different states, I spent Thursday shoeless to experience what it is like to be without shoes.
My Thoughts.
I really cannot believe how badly my feet hurt after just ONE day of walking barefoot! I was amazed at how something like shoes can keep my body from feeling ragged, rundown, and tired. I know that I take my shoes for granted every single day. I didnt know how hard it would be to go without them. Even more now, I want to be able to get kids shoes. We just have an amazing overabundance of wealth here in America. And we don’t share it as well as we could 
I was also incredibly encouraged by the people that I talked to on the U of MN campus. It was great to see people get excited about helping children with something as simple as shoes! It made me realize even more how easy it is for us to forget the impact that we can have on others. But the only way people will care is if someone tells them about it. And One Day Without Shoes was an incredibly opportunity to get people involved!!!!
now for the day…
Heading Out of the Apartment
my bare feet in the car! it felt weird!
Not going to lie. The walk from the door of my apartment building to my car was on a little gravel. And it hurt. It took me a little longer to get to the car, all the while i was going “ow ow ow ow ow”… I am a wuss!!!!!
I went to walmart. and got yelled at by the guy working at the door to put on my shoes. Fortunately, I had my TOMS with me in case such a thing happened, and went inside. I might have just not gone in, BUT i needed to get some supplies for the TOMS shirts that I was planning to make.
I got the shirt supplies and headed home… spent a few hours working on those!!!!!
the TOMS shirts
my roomie went barefoot for a few hours as well
standing outside waiting for the shirts to dry
University of St. Thomas
I headed straight to school as soon as the shirts were semi-dry to meet up with some barefoot friends and meet up with Sarah as she went on her barefoot walk around downtown. Again, my feet were STILL killing me. I felt so lame, because i’d only been barefoot for a few hours! Walking through the parking ramp at school was interesting as well. I got some funny stares from businessmen who were heading out to lunch!
Sarah got a photo of me downtown in my new TOMS shirt
we got more stares from people chillin at Brit’s pub across the street out on the street cafe area. As we walked we would get the look that was like “what are those girls doin???”
I got several comments from people that involved diseases on the ground and stepping on rusty nails! I told them I appreciated the warnings and handed them fliers…
our bare feet downtown! OH the pain!
After St Thomas… I actually had to go to a happy hour downtown for a student group that i am a part of, at which point I also had to put my shoes on… they wouldn’t let me in otherwise! But don’t worry, I made sure to leave some little TOMS One Day Without Shoes fliers around!
University of Minnesota
I headed from downtown Minneapolis to the University of Minnesota’s East Bank campus. My friend Amber and I met up with our two friends Dave and Jordan to meet and group so that we could walk to the student union. We met up with two others who had shown up for the barefoot walk, Robby and Brittany, and headed out.
It was a lot of fun! The way that we approached getting the word out was basically just to approach random people and ask them if we could tell them about TOMS! Some even took pictures with us People were super receptive to what we were saying and were excited by the time we finished telling them about One Day Without Shoes. They all wanted fliers and more information. It was really encouraging! People even came up from behind to ask us what our shirts meant (it said “one day without shoes, april 16th” on our backs). That gave us even MORE opportunities to tell them about the work TOMS has done!
We walked for at least a mile, heading across to the west bank (where the really rough uneven stone they used for the walkways REALLY hurt my feet). We talked to some more people and then headed back, making sure that people we passed knew what we were doing.
on the mall, making sure people knew it was One Day Without Shoes!
We had fun in front of the alumni center, talking with some skateboarders who were loving the TOMS shoes and concept. At this point it was getting close to when we had to get going. We had a few minutes of craze when I realized my phone was missing and Amber couldn’t find her camera! But after we backtracked our steps, we found my phone on the west bank, and Amber’s camera at school.
After leaving the U of M, Amber and I actually headed back to St. Thomas to find her phone. We caught the last few people still at school from the etiquette dinner they’d had earlier, and got to tell more people about why we were in our barefeet! They were amped about TOMS, and equally grossed out by our feet
The Porters
After making sure Amber was good with the boys at school, I headed out once again to meet up with some of my friends at the Porter’s house. My good friend Andrea and her husband Jared had some people over and we just chilled and I once again got to share about One Day Without Shoes. They were excited that the day had gone well, and I even gave my extra TOMS shirt to a friend who loved it!
photo of me taken by lil Jack…
The end.
I went home exhausted and ready to sleep! But pictures were coming in and ready to go so I worked on those for a while. Until I realized that my feet were kinda gross and a little smelly! So i soaked them and then went to bed
yes. that is the bottom of my left foot.
It was a great day. I loved telling people about One for One and TOMS shoes! Hopefully they will think about what TOMS is doing and be excited to help out!
