By B.C. Manion
In a twist on the saying about walking a mile in someone’s shoes, Carrollwood Day fifth-graders staged an empathy walk — going barefoot three times around the school’s track to get a feel for what life is like without them.
Danielle Macaluso’s class organized the walk to raise awareness about the 1.5 billion people worldwide who do not own a single pair of shoes.
The students began conducting research on less-developed countries as part of their 5th Grade Primary Years Program Exhibition, Macaluso said.
As they delved into their research, students began focusing on health and education needs in less-developed countries.
Coincidentally, while the class was doing its research, Danielle Calhoun, an acquaintance of Macaluso’s put out a call on Facebook looking for people to help with a shoe drive she was conducting.
Calhoun, a wedding and portrait photographer, belongs to a national group called Dando Amor, which means “give love.” That group is doing a drive for children living in orphanages in Ecuador and Africa.
Macaluso was searching online for ideas when she found out about Calhoun’s drive. She asked her students if they wanted to help.
They did.
“We thought it would be a really neat idea if we got involved in it,” said student Annie Frankel.
Once they decided to get involved, all 17 of her students began offering ideas about what they could do.
They organized two schoolwide events — the shoe drive and the empathy walk.
The kids wrote a script for a live commercial they performed for students in the school’s theater.
They did their own take on the Harlem Shake, calling their version the Shoeless Shake, Frankel said.
And, they got results.
“People, right away, started bringing in shoes,” Frankel said.
“We got a lot,” said Shelton Quarles, her classmate. “We really got to the kids in our school and they actually helped us get 551 pairs of shoes.”
The students said they have learned a lot about life in less-developed countries.
“I didn’t know that Africa didn’t have shoes,” Quarles said.
The students began working on the project in November, Macaluso said.
They voted on the theme and chose to study the health care and educational needs in developing countries.
During their research they learned that the lack of shoes actually has led to death in thousands of cases as injuries and illnesses progressed due to insufficient medical treatment.
“There’s not a lot of doctors there to help them, so they were making shoes out of water bottles and string,” Frankel said. She added, “Some people didn’t have any of those materials.”
When students learned that, they were motivated to help.
Macaluso is proud of the work her students have done on their project: “They care so deeply about it. This has really become their passion. I truly have just been a guide for them.”
The empathy walk was intended to give students a personal understanding of what life is life for millions of people in developing countries.
The event drew hundreds of elementary and middle students to the field, where some kids walked barefoot, others wore socks and some wore shoes.
As the walkers circled the rough track, some kids hobbled along. Others strayed off to the side to walk along the track’s grassy edge.
One boy, walking along the track called out, “I have a good quote for you, ‘It hurts.’”
The kids in Macaluso’s class, on the other hand, like the way it feels to help others.
To donate shoes or money, contact Danielle Calhoun at