Today, the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team, head coach John Calipari and other staff partnered with Samaritan’s Feet International and its founder, Manny Ohonme to serve 150 children from impoverished communities in Nassau, Bahamas.
The event took place at Faith Assembly, where they washed the feet of each child and provided them with a pair of new athletic shoes, along with a pair of socks.
Samaritan’s Feet is a 501(c)(3) humanitarian aid organization that shares a message of hope and love through washing the feet and providing new shoes to impoverished children around the world.
“We’ve worked with Samaritan’s Feet a number of times,” said Calipari. “It’s always one of my favorite events because of the impact it has on us and the children we’re serving. The act of washing someone else’s feet and to put shoes on the feet of kids who don’t have any is the ultimate act of servant leadership, which we talk to our guys about all the time. They’ve been blessed to be put in a position where they can have influence on other people. What creates joy is when you impact others and see it influence them in a really positive way. To be able to teach them that while serving the Samaritan’s Feet mission brings incredible joy for me, and I want to thank Manny Ohonme for working with us again.”
When Manny and Tracie Ohonme founded Samaritan’s Feet International in 2003, they set goals to impact 10 million people and inspire other nonprofits and corporations to distribute shoes, as well. Since then, the organization has provided pairs of shoes to nearly seven million children in more than 90 nations. Collectively, with other partner organizations, they surpassed the goal of touching 10 million lives.
“We are so thankful for Coach Calipari and the entire University of Kentucky basketball team for helping us kick off our Million Shoe Campaign as we are try to impact the lives of 1 million people in the next 12 months,” said Manny Ohonme. “There’s no better way to kick off the campaign than to serve with the team by washing the feet of 150 children and providing them with new shoes, socks and words of encouragement. Thank you Coach Calipari for your continued support and servant leadership.”
Samaritan’s Feet is able to continuously strive towards creating a world with zero shoeless children with the help of many, including shoe donations from brands such as BOBS Shoes from Skechers, Sears/Kmart, Crocs, Nike, Converse, Adidas, Walmart, Under Armour, and Elan Polo, as well as over 130,000 volunteers and other supporters.
For more information on Samaritan’s Feet, visit SamaritansFeet.org.
