Last Thursday you may have noticed that quite a few people at our school were missing an important part of their wardrobe.

While many were sporting their flip-flops, tennis-shoes and any other shoe commonly seen at a high school, a few of us were rocking bare-feet. TOMS One Day Without Shoes was Thursday, April 8, and I was extremely surprised by the number of people willing to walk around this school with no shoes on.

Before you say, “EW! That is disgusting,” I would like to explain what TOMS One Day Without Shoes is. Yesterday, people around the world did not wear shoes in honor of children around the world who grow up without shoes. People participating in the day go on a one mile walk, holding signs that say “TOMS” and wearing TOMS apparel. Although you may still think that it was disgusting, you can now acknowledge that everyone walking around barefoot did it for a meaningful cause.

Last year, some support was given to TOMS, but not nearly as much as this year. I saw four or five students before stepping foot in the building who were all either barefoot, wearing a TOMS shirt, or wearing TOMS shoes. Although it is called “One Day Without Shoes,” the main point of the day is still to spread the word of TOMS; many students who did not want to go barefoot wore other TOMS apparel to support TOMS. I even saw a few teachers wearing TOMS.

I think that One Day Without Shoes was a fantastic example of how to spread the word of how much need there is in this world, but I just wish that more people had taken part in it.