El Paso, TX (December 23, 2024) |
evolve FCU hosted its fifth annual Shoe Story event in partnership with Academy Sports and Outdoor in West El Paso during the month of December. For the fifth year in a row, they have come together and donated new pairs of shoes to local children’s organizations. They hand wrapped and donated a total of 220 pairs of shoes. The organizations included El Paso's Child Crisis Center, The Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, Candlelighters, Lee and Beulah Moor Children's Home and El Paso's Children Miracle Network (CMN). The delivery of the shoes took place between December 12th through December 17th where the evolve marketing team delivered the shoes to each organization’s location respectfully.
The planning for this event takes months to make it happen. In preparation, the evolve FCU marketing team communicates and requests shoe lists from the children’s organizations. After gathering all the shoe lists from the organizations, the evolve marketing staff communicates with the Academy store managers, Richard J. Limas and Sonya Villareal, who have been very supportive and resourceful since the initiative of this event back in 2020. Since then, the staff and managers work to hand-pick each individual pair of shoes. After the shoes are collected, the marketing team and other evolve FCU staff and volunteers wrap all the pairs for the children. This has become a special annual event that all the organizations involved look forward to as it gives an opportunity for the non-profit agencies to be able to provide gifts for the children. Alexa Velaquez, CMN Program Director stated “On behalf of the Children’s Miracle Network, I want to sincerely thank evolve Federal Credit Union for your generous donation of new shoes for patients at El Paso Children’s Hospital this Christmas. Your kindness brings joy and comfort to these children during the holiday season, and we are deeply grateful for your continued support in making their days a little brighter.”
In addition to the shoe donations, evolve FCU also sponsored 25 littles from Big Brothers Big Sisters of El Paso, gifting them Christmas gifts from their wishlist. The Marketing team was happy to help and wrap all the gifts from their wishlist just in time for the holiday season.
This Social Purpose event started with a story. A story that inspired evolve FCU during a difficult year for everyone around the world. In 2020, the staff at evolve FCU was invited to visit the Child Crisis Center of El Paso where the former CEO Enrique Davila greeted them. Mr. Davila gave the marketing staff at evolve FCU a tour of the wonderful facility he and his staff ran. He spoke about the silly stories the kids tell, the things they like and the hardships they face. One of the things that stood out the most for evolve staff was the fact that many of the children that are taken to the Child Crisis Center arrive without any shoes. Some kids arrive with a missing shoe when they are dropped off overnight. Most of the children have never received a new pair of shoes as many of the shoes they wear are gently used donations, according to Davila. This inspired evolve FCU to create a new event called, A Shoe Story, as part of their social purpose.
For more information about our social purpose please visit: https://www.evolvefcu.org/about-us/social-purpose