CSX Volunteers Give 500 Students New Shoes in Florida

For many children, walking into school with worn-out shoes can feel like showing up without armor. On September 18, nearly 500 students at Pinedale Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida, got to choose brand new athletic shoes that fit perfectly and felt just right.

Eighty CSX employees volunteered their time to make it happen. Working alongside Soles4Souls and local partner The Giving Closet Project, they helped each child pick out shoes they loved, find the right size, and walk away ready to tackle the year ahead.

CSX Chief Human Resources Officer Riz Chand kicked off the event with a simple truth. "A new pair of shoes may seem like a simple thing, but for a child, it can remove one more barrier to starting the school year feeling like they belong," he said.

The volunteers didn't just hand out shoes. They knelt down, measured feet, tied laces, and offered encouragement to students who might otherwise start the year worrying about something as basic as footwear.

The Ripple Effect

This Jacksonville event represents just one piece of a much larger movement. CSX's partnership with Soles4Souls' 4EveryKid initiative will provide new shoes to 7,500 children across multiple communities this year.

When kids don't have to worry about their shoes falling apart or being teased about what they're wearing, they can focus on learning, playing, and simply being kids. That confidence boost ripples through classrooms, playgrounds, and eventually entire communities.

The impact shows up in small but powerful moments: a student running faster at recess without shoes that pinch, a child raising their hand in class instead of hiding their feet under a desk, a family saving money for other necessities.

For the volunteers, the day offered something equally valuable. They got to see firsthand how a practical gift can transform a child's entire outlook on the school year ahead.

Every child deserves to start the school year feeling confident, and sometimes that confidence starts from the ground up.