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"A Good Samaritan for Shoes"
Posted on February 10, 2010

 

By Mike Bailey, staff writer, Messenger Post

Posted Feb 01, 2010 @ 10:13 AM
Greece, N.Y. —
Chris Cleveland had a nice tropical shirt on for Monday’s game against Northstar Christian. And while that may appear unique on the surface, it was a perfect complement to the more abstract look he had going on below.
The Odyssey skipper coached without any shoes for the game as a way to raise awareness for Samaritan’s Feet, an organization that distributes footwear to impoverished youth across the world.
“We had gotten an e-mail about it and it looked like a good organization,” Cleveland said. “Then after the earthquake in Haiti happened, I saw the video of rescuers digging through rubble without any shoes on. That was really moving.”
Cleveland has always been involved in charity dating back to his days at Arcadia when Doug Childs had them work for Habitat for Humanity and at Monroe Community Hospital.
Cleveland’s teams have been involved in the Salvation Army and the Mary Cariola Center in recent years. Last year he had his players wear pink shoelaces in an effort to raise awareness for cancer.
This year’s charity effort featured over 1,000 barefoot coaches across the country and the goal was to raise enough money for one million pair of shoes.
During the game the Odyssey and Northstar fans were able to text a number to give an automatic five dollar donation. Several weeks ago Coach Cleveland had all the players in his program do a free throw contest where players shot 100 free throws and collected pledges based on their results. Some of the proceeds went to the Samaritan’s Feet.
The organization claims that over 300 million children across the globe do not have any footwear. Their goal is to raise 10 million pair of shoes to 10 million people in 10 years.  Cleveland said that after a while he didn’t even realize that his feet were uncovered.
"You get so caught up in the game that you forget after awhile," he said. "Plus the gym was heated so it wasn't like I was freezing.  The kids got a kick out of my shirt but I figured it went well with no shoes."
Cleveland didn’t have a tally for the total amount of money raised as donations were still expected to come in.
"We get a lot of exposure through sports and it is very important to use that to impact others in a positive way," Cleveland said.  "While we all want to win games and compete for sectional titles, this is the stuff that can really make a difference."
(Photograph of Coach Cleveland taken by Carrie Ann Grippo)