From The Mouths, And Wallets, Of Babes: Texas Teen Donates $25K Worth Of Shoes To The Needy

EL PASO, TX — Often, and increasingly these days, it's the children who are setting an example for the grownups.

Take Drew Frank, 13, as dramatic illustration of this assertion. In lieu of gifts at his recent bar mitzvah, he asked for cash donations to buy shoes — not for himself, mind you, but to donate them to needy children.

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The young man ended up tallying $25,000 in donations. With the help of the Braden Aboud Foundation, he bought 800 pairs of Nikes shoes and accompanying athletic socks to give away. Four-hundred pairs of those shoes went to a public elementary school in an El Paso, Texas, low-income neighborhood, the rest going to a local orphanage and a YWCA transitional living center for women and children, USA Today reported.

Frank settled on the Aboud Foundation to help him disburse the footwear because the organization has been giving away shoes for annually since 2008.

“Drew and his family approached us about doing something together,” the charitable foundation's founder Cindi Aboud said. “My hope is that our foundation will be able to one day get the sponsorship of Nike or another big shoe retailer to partner with us so we can buy more shoes.”

This marked the first time the foundation had teamed up with a single donor to purchase shoes for the needy.

“I’m giving sneakers to these kids who may otherwise not have new sneakers,” the diminutive benefactor told a reporter. “They just get shoes that have been passed down from generation to generation. I just wanted to give back to these kids who are less fortunate than me.”

Beall Elementary School students in El Paso, one of the recipients of the young man's generosity, honored him on their marquee. The tribute served as a welcome for the young man as he arrived with foundation officials to distribute the shoes.

>>> Read the full story at USA Today

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