AUSTIN (KXAN) — Marcus Reese remembers growing up how important it was to have a new pair of shoes walking into the first day of school. However, he also remembers not being able to afford a new pair at times, which gave him the inspiration to help families in need as students all headed back to school.
Reese spoke with KXAN’s Mike Rush and Avery Travis to talk about how in just one week he has been able to use his inspiration to help dozens of kids go back to school in style.
Read an edited transcription of the conversation below or use the video player above.
Travis: So, talk to us about what you’ve been doing. You have given new shoes to dozens of kids. But we want to back up. This actually started with your own personal obsession with sneakers.
Reese: It did. I just love sneakers, and we couldn’t afford the nicest pair. I also had a really difficult childhood, so even if we could, I was told you don’t deserve nice, nice shoes. So, going to school was really it was tough for me to see everyone have nice shoes, and then I walked in with last year’s pair, and I have had that obsession ever since.
Rush: You know it’s really heartbreaking to hear you say that somebody told you as a child that you didn’t deserve something like shoes. But what is nice to hear, and why we wanted to have you here, is that you’ve taken that and done what your hat there says. You’ve healed by making good out of it. And so fast forward. Now you’re an adult. This is like about a week ago. I mean, we’re only talking just a few days ago. You’re at the store buying shoes for your daughter, and then this idea hits you. Explain how that happened.
Reese: So, we were school shopping, and I was buying her, probably her fourth pair of shoes — which was too many. And behind me, I could hear a father explaining to his daughter that they wouldn’t be able to afford those shoes. And it hit me that I remember that feeling of not being able to show up with my best foot forward, literally. And I went home and God spoke to me ‘Why don’t you do something about it instead of just waiting? Go do it.’ So, I made a Facebook post in my community asking, is there any family that needs help? And then I went to bed, and I woke up to 22 families asking for help, and so many community members asking, ‘Can I help?’ ‘Can I give you 100 bucks?’ ‘Can I buy shoes?’ It was unbelievable.
Travis: So this is now become really a community-wide project. Tell us how other people got involved.
Reese: It was really unreal. So, that next day, I had probably $2,500. I went shopping. I asked for the sizes and the gender, and I went line by line and met each need. I went to Adidas in Round Rock, and I was walking with a big stack of shoes, and the manager goes, ‘What are you doing?’ And she says, Is this for a team? And I said, No. And she said, Well, is it for the community? I said, Yeah. And she offered me discounts off of every third pair of shoes I bought, which made the money go further. And it’s unreal.
Rush: That’s great. We were just seeing video of you handing some shoes to a person with an officer with Taylor Police, so they also heard about it, and you gave them the shoes to give to another family. So that’s great. So this turned from being something where you wanted to help, you know, maybe one child into how many now?
Reese: So as of this past Tuesday, we helped 49 kids.
Rush: And we’re talking, because I asked you earlier, so, how long have you been doing this? And you said, ‘Oh, it’s been a week.’ It was on the 14th of the 14th of August. So he really worked. You really worked fast. The community really stepped up fast and now, you know, dozens of children have these shoes, which is great. And it is worth pointing out that this is really kind of your life’s mission to help other people. You had a couple of nonprofits. Tell us about that.
Reese: So I have the Taylor Area Tennis Association, which is, I’m a tennis coach, so it’s obvious why. And then I have the Break The Silence Movement. And with that nonprofit, we work to advocate and provide awareness and prevention for childhood sexual abuse. I’m a survivor myself, and so through this work, I’m able to heal part of my childhood one shoe at a time.
Rush: The shoe campaign, since it is only just about a week or a few days more than that old, doesn’t have a name or anything like that. So what do you see for the future?
Reese: So, another nonprofit in town called The Good Life Taylor has reached out, and the city of Taylor has reached out and they want to partner. So what we’re going to do, like we’re going to make it happen, is every July we’ll do an official drive. You have school supplies and backpacks, but as you said, no shoes. So this will be a yearly thing that we kick off in Taylor.