After her daughter’s altruistic request, this Arkansas attorney was inspired to donate 1,500 pairs of shoes to students in need.
Alma resident Carrie Jernigan was visiting a local Payless with her kids to buy them some shoes when she was motivated to enact a good deed after her daughter asked her for a favor.
She was about to checkout at the store in May when her oldest daughter, who she says “has the biggest heart”, asked her if she could buy a pair of Avengers shoes for her classmate whose shoes were too small for him.
Carrie had no second thoughts about the matter and immediately agreed.
“I was like, ‘Of course,’” Carrie told KFSM. “I just said, ‘How much for the rest of the shoes in the store?’ I was almost joking and I could see the clerk’s face and her wheels start to turn and she finished checking me out. She said, ‘Can I have your number?’”
Later that day, the district manager called and said that she could buy all the remaining shoes. But while they were at the store, a new shipment suddenly arrived, and what she thought was going to be 200-300 pairs of shoes ended up tripling in number.
“The next thing you know we are trying to figure out how to get almost 1,500 shoes home with us that day,” Carrie said.
The 37-year-old lawyer and local school board’s president “took home nearly $21,000 worth of merchandise — the majority of which she saved from the store’s blowout sale,” according to Money.
Carrie intends to donate 1,100 pairs of shoes to children and local schools and give the remaining to adults in need.
Not long after, the story of her good deed spread and inspired other people to do the same. Many reached out to them wanting to donate, so the family decided to hold a back-to-school bash the weekend before the school year begins.
The drive will be held on August 10 at the Alma Middle School Gym starting at 2 pm. They will be partnering with Kibler Baptist Church and will be giving away school supplies as well.
“I always tell my kids, if you ask them what they want to be when they grow up they say be kind, and so I don’t care what they do in life as long as they are kind and good people,” Carrie said. “And so it just reiterates to me that their hearts are in the right place and if it’s in the right place they can do amazing things.”
Watch the report below from KFSM to learn more about this woman’s incredible act of kindness.
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