The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Katie Stevens Students participating in "National Day Without Shoes" campaign, sponsored by TOMS Shoes, a company whose goal is to donate a pair of shoes to "a child in need" for every pair purchased, make their way through the plaza Wednesday, April 16, 2008. The students recruited others along the way to go barefoot through campus for the day.

Atop the cold concrete of the Lory Student Center plaza, eight barefoot students departed the Morgan Library Wednesday to embark on a protest march aimed to raise awareness of impoverished communities in third world countries who cannot afford shoes.

Discarding the hopes for sunny weather and a higher turnout, the group had fun along the journey by spreading the group message to other students and converting bystanders to participants.

Four CSU students organized the barefoot march to complement to the "National Day Without Shoes" campaign created by the retailer TOMS Shoes from Santa Monica, CA. The company matches every sale of a pair of shoes with a donation of a pair to a child in a third world country.

Alison Kent, a sophomore international studies and political science double-major, was the first recruit to join the march. Her toes already exposed, Kent had heard of the Day Without Shoes campaign from an e-mail sent by the "CSU TOMS" group on Facebook, a networking Web site.

"I thought it was a good idea," Kent said. "It stood out from all the other causes that I had received on Facebook."

Kent came to campus without shoes, but had not heard of the barefoot march until an inadvertent run-in with the marchers outside the library. Recruits also came from other areas along the route.

Kevin Frasure, a sociology senior, joined the group from the strip booths on the plaza. His feet were bare for a different reason: he had taken off his shoes to mount the banner for an earlier demonstration on the plaza, which honored the Virginia Tech victims.

The group would pass through the plaza to enter the Lory Student Center. The marchers said some students could have been deterred from joining due to the weather conditions: a gray sky and gusts of brisk wind.

Continued...

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