Samaritan’s Feet and Transportation Insight Provide Shoes and Hope for Those in Need

Sept. 11, 2012 - PRLog -- Hickory, NC -Transportation Insight and local volunteers teamed up with Samaritan’s Feet over the weekend to help children in need of shoes in the Hickory community. Transportation Insight employees partnered with area churches and businesses on Saturday, September 8 to host “Shoes of Hope,” a shoe drive at the Hickory YMCA Teen Center. Volunteers washed the feet of children and families and provided them with a new pair of socks and shoes. Children also received sack packs full of office supplies, donated by the Office Depot Foundation. Over 1,200 people were served throughout the day.

“When you wash someone’s feet, it’s a very personal act,” says Transportation Insight CEO Paul Thompson. “It creates a connection and opens the opportunity to share a message of hope. It was a blessing to all who participated and to our entire company.”

Samaritan’s Feet is a humanitarian aid organization that shares a message of love through washing the feet of impoverished children around the world and providing them with new shoes. For the “Shoes of Hope” drive, Transportation Insight set a goal for its employees to raise enough money to purchase 300 pairs of shoes.  The goal was far exceeded by raising over $10,000.

“It’s not just about the shoes today. The shoes are great, but it’s about touching these children’s lives and giving them hope they don’t have to stay in the situation that they’re in,” says Wendi Gonzalez, head of this year’s Samaritan’s Feet event committee for Transportation Insight.  “Planning an event like this is a lot of hard work, but it is heartwarming work. God had his hand on all of this. We were his instrument to make this a great day.”

Samaritan’s Feet was founded in 2003 by Manny Ohonme, but the seed had been planted long before that. As a child growing up in Africa, Manny received his first pair of shoes at age nine from a missionary. Because of that pair of shoes, Manny began to play basketball and eventually received a basketball scholarship to the University of North Dakota. He earned a Master’s degree and spent ten years in the marketing and logistics business. However, the children in Africa living under the strain of poverty, drug abuse, war and gangs were still in the back of his mind. Manny eventually left behind the comfort and security of his executive position to fulfill his dream of providing 10 million new pairs of shoes to 10 million impoverished children in 10 years.

After accompanying Manny on a shoe distribution trip to Lima, Peru in 2008, Thompson approached the Transportation Insight executives about volunteering with Samaritan’s Feet. Since then, nearly every executive has traveled internationally with Samaritan’s Feet and other employees have taken part in local shoe drives and volunteer opportunities.

“If you want to evangelize, I don’t think there is a more effective medium than Samaritan’s Feet,” Thompson says. "Their ministry is efficient, meaningful and game-changing.”  He adds, “The real testimony is that whoever participates with Samaritan’s Feet will want to do it again.”

About Samaritan’s Feet
Samaritan’s Feet is a 501(c)(3) humanitarian aid organization that shares a message of hope and love through washing the feet of impoverished children around the world and adorning them with new shoes. There are an estimated 300 million children who go without shoes every day and more than 1 million that die each year from foot borne disease. Our goal is to provide 10 million pairs of shoes for children in the next 10 years, and since 2003 Samaritan’s Feet and its team of ambassadors have blessed an estimated 4.5 million children in more than 60 nations.

About Transportation Insight, LLC
Transportation Insight is a global lead logistics provider with more than $1.2 billion in supply chain spend under management. For over a decade, the 3PL has helped companies improve profitability and competitive advantage by providing customized supply chain solutions. Transportation Insight offers a co-managed logistics form of 3PL, carrier sourcing, freight bill audit and payment services, state-of-the-art transportation management system (TMS) applications and business intelligence. Additional competencies include international transportation, warehouse sourcing, LEAN consulting and supply chain sourcing of indirect materials.
For more about Transportation Insight, visit www.transportationinsight.com.