The shoes were donated to Men of the North by the Toronto-based Justice Fund. (Facebook/Men of the North)

By Derek Cornet

donation

Men of the North distributes 125 pairs of shoes to northern students

Sep 19, 2024 | 3:13 PM

Children in Buffalo Narrows and the tri-communities were gifted new shoes in recent weeks thanks to the efforts of Men of the North.

Men of the North was provided 200 pairs of Nike shoes by the Toronto-based Justice Fund last summer and still had 125 pairs to distribute following previous giveaways. During a group session, members of Men of the North decided a fitting way to donate the remainder of the shoes would be through a back-to-school initiative.

Students who benefitted from the donation are from Air Ronge’s Gordon Denny Community School, Buffalo Narrow’s Twin Lakes Community School, La Ronge’s Pre-Cam Community School and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s Bell’s Point School.

“We decided to do that as a way to bring down some of the stress factors that do play in everybody’s day-to-day lives,” Men of the North founder Christopher Merasty explained.

“There are some parents who might not be able to afford to give their young ones a brand new pair of shoes to go to school with, so we thought we would help in that area.”

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The Nike all-terrain shoes came in many colour and size options with each pair costing hundreds of dollars. Merasty noted it’s a good feeling to be able to provide shoes of such high quality.

“It definitely amazing me to have the capacity to do such a thing as giving out these high-quality shoes to deserving kids who definitely need them amongst our community and amongst other communities,” he added.

“Having that capacity to be able to do that is phenomenal for us. It just goes to show the true strength of a community organization and other companies coming together and doing such a thing. It’s not too often we see these types of initiatives take place in our community. This is just the beginning, and we hope to definitely continue to distribute these types of initiatives.”

Men of the North previously distributed Nike shoes to families though initiatives such as a five-kilometer walk and a community garbage clean up event.

The Justice Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting communities in conflict with the law.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com