Teenage Founder of Save Our Soles Delivers Compassion via Foot Care to Chapman Partnership Residents
MIAMI – Armando Gonzalez knows all too well the difference a person’s foot health can make. As a cross country runner, the junior at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School has a deep appreciation for the right shoes and having strong feet.
“When I was four years old my father started taking me every year to be one of his elves on Christmas when he dressed as Santa Claus at the holiday party for the Chapman residents. Then from about age eight, my siblings and I would all go to help prepare and serve food.”
That experience instilled in Gonzalez a desire to further his connection to Chapman and has resulted in two Save Our Soles events at the Miami Chapman location. Along with volunteers including Dr. Frank Olivia, podiatrist, Gonzalez has donated over 200 new shoes and foot checkups to men women and children who have lived unsheltered lives. Gonzalez says their gratitude for the simple experience was incredible, and humbling.
“It felt great to bring such joy to people by just acknowledging that they truly mattered. The residents share with me so many stories of how their trials and tribulations have gotten them here, but that us serving them gives them hope that it will all get better. One of the residents had come for the first event and at the second event I saw him wearing the shoes he had received, and he was ecstatic to get another pair.”