Group Is Filling the Need For a New Pair of Shoes

By Alan Goldenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 19, 2008; E10

Marcus Horne knows exactly what he would be thinking -- perhaps even exclaiming to anyone within earshot -- if he were sitting in the stands at Ballou and watching Knights Coach Moe Ware walk barefoot onto the sideline for tonight's game against St. Frances Academy.

"I'd say, 'Man, that dude's crazy,' " said Horne, a Ballou senior running back. " 'What's he doing with no shoes?' "

Ware will leave his shoes in the locker room while Horne will be wearing new cleats, speckled with Ballou's blue and yellow, just one of the more than 100 pairs donated to the team by Samaritan's Feet, an international nonprofit that has given more than 750,000 pairs of shoes to children worldwide. Ware is going shoeless both as a show of gratitude to Samaritan's Feet and to draw attention to the group's cause.

"Coach Moe may not have the money or the fame, but he has the platform as a coach to teach future leaders," said Emmanuel "Manny" Ohonme, founder and chief executive of Samaritan's Feet. "From him, I hope people realize how the act of compassion can change someone's life."

Ohonme started Samaritan's Feet five years ago as an outlet to raise awareness of the more than 300 million children worldwide who do not own shoes. The group estimates 10,000 children die annually from diseases contracted by walking barefoot in impoverished communities that lack clean water and sewage treatment, much like the one in Nigeria where Ohonme was born and raised.

When Ohonme was 9, a "good Samaritan" visiting from Wisconsin -- the inspiration for the nonprofit's name -- gave him his first pair of shoes, which allowed him to play basketball. Seven years later, in 1989, Ohonme was recruited to play at the University of North Dakota-Lake Region. He eventually earned his master's degree in applied economics.

Samaritan's Feet made its initial national splash last January, when Ron Hunter, the men's' basketball coach at IUPUI, coached a game barefoot, which helped bring in more than 100,000 pairs of donated shoes. According to J Rollins, a board member of Samaritan's Feet, who also coordinates the group's Northeast region office from Washington, Ware will be the first to coach a high school game barefoot.

"It's a no-brainer thing for me," said Ware, a 1991 Ballou graduate. "We've got kids who need the help, but we also need to tell them there are kids who need even more than them. We've been telling them how meaningful this game is and how fortunate we are to be the team they picked for this."

Shortly after Samaritan's Feet distributed more than 1,000 pairs of shoes at Paramount Baptist Church in Southeast Washington last April, Rollins received a donation of football cleats. He thought about the neighborhood surrounding Paramount, and with Ballou just a few blocks away, called the school and offered the cleats to Ware.

"The challenges they faced are not so different from the children we deal with from all over the world," said Rollins, who also donated to Ballou's track team sneakers he received from Georgetown University over the summer after the school signed an endorsement deal with a different shoe company. "If I'm going to pick a neighborhood in my town, this is going to be it."

Samaritan's Feet, though, is preparing for an even bigger event. With NASCAR serving as a chief sponsor, Ohonme will leave Lowe's Motor Speedway outside Charlotte on Oct. 11 and begin a 300-mile barefoot walk that will end Oct. 26 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Fifteen cities, including Washington, have set up mini-walks during the final weekend of Ohonme's trek with a goal of raising at least 200,000 pairs of shoes.

"Nobody thought it was going to take off," Ohonme said, "but in the last year, the walls have just come down."

It's already impacted one unassuming teenager in the District.

"Now that I know the reason," Horne said, "it makes me want to do something about it, like donate money or donate some shoes. Maybe box up some shoes that I'd throw away and give them to someone else."