If you live in Playa del Carmen you may have seen Judy Walburn wearing her colorful shirt as she collects donations of children’s sneakers or you may have seen her in Los Tres Hermanos buying more than 100 pairs of children’s shoes at a time.
Judy Walburn and her husband Scott live in Pennsylvania and originally planned to enjoy Playa del Carmen for 3 months each winter. They felt they wanted to do some volunteer work in Playa and found their way to the Rotary Club of Playa del Carmen Seaside.
Judy’s husband is a member of the local Rotary chapter in Pennsylvania so Judy decided to join the Seaside Rotary club in 2022 so they could help both clubs.
Judy initially came down with 25 pairs of sneakers which “she was thrilled about” but soon realized the enormous need here. She now comes to Playa del Carmen 3 times a year to fund raise.
The original sneaker lady was Michele Kinnon. Michele started Kicks4Kids in 2013 and in 2015 she turned the project over to the Rotary Club of Playa del Carmen Seaside, where she is a member.
Michele saw the conditions in which children in some of the jungle communities were living. They were barefoot or in flimsy flip flops. She started asking around her expat community for people to bring sneakers when they came on vacation.
Kicks4Kids has been collecting donations of sneakers for over 10 years. The number of donations has been steadily increasing but so is the number of children requiring sneakers.
The project is now thriving with the help of fundraising in the US and Canada and using Facebook to reach out to guests coming to the area on vacation. The past few years the Rotary Club of Playa del Carmen Seaside has been able to provide new sneakers to approximately 700 children each year.
We give to all the children who attend the following schools. 70 to children in Torres de La Paz, 100 to Cristo Rey kindergarten and 500 to Crisyo Rey primary school.
With the support we are getting from so many caring people we are able reach our goal to help these children so they can get to school safely as proper footwear protects them from cuts and subsequent infections.
One of our goals at Seaside Rotary is to help “Break the cycle of poverty through education”. Healthy children will help achieve this.
If you would like to help you can email Judy at judywalburn@gmail.com.
