MILTON — King Middle School students received a surprise this week: a new pair of shoes.
But the event had a deeper purpose: to strengthen the relationship between youths and law enforcement.
Wednesday, volunteers with Milton First Assembly of God, the Milton Police Department and Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s office measured shoe sizes for each student.
The goal?
“For the 600 kids we have here, (students) would get to see the police in a positive light and maybe build a relationship that is not always associated with what they are seeing in the news today,” Principal Darren Brock said.
“We had (this event) as a confidence builder for our police department and sheriff’s department … they maybe get to see the kids in a different light than what they have seen before.”
Dusty Roberts, First Assembly’s associate pastor, said the church applied for the shoe program in the spring. The church asked to keep the grant program and shoe company that made the event possible anonymous.
Roberts said the school met the grant program’s requirements to show financial need. King Middle School is a Title 1 secondary school; more than 75 percent of school’s students receives free or reduced lunches.
After establishing eligibility, the next goal was to involve law enforcement.
“We know (law enforcement) are often times called out to very difficult circumstances and, because of that, some people do not appreciate them like they should,” Roberts said. “So we want to give them the opportunity to do something great.”
Milton Police Chief Tony Tindell said opportunities like this event are important.
“You can never pass up an opportunity to positively interact with students,” he said.
Brock said the school always seeks opportunities to help families in need. Such efforts include offering free monitored Wi-Fi outside the school to help students with assignments. In addition, the school is working to secure more technology.
“I wanted to be able to put technology in these kids’ hands, because I know they are going home and they don’t have a lot of the technology that maybe some other kids are exposed to in different locations,” Brock said.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: King Middle students get free shoes