Granite Education Foundation receives donation of new shoes, weeks after stolen goods were reported

WEST VALLEY CITY — The Granite Education Foundation received a critical donation of 650 new Adidas shoes Monday, weeks after someone broke into their warehouse and stole thousands of dollars in goods.

“The community support in response to that has been extremely, extremely, humbling and were so thankful to have partners that respond when things like that happen,” said Remi Prince of the Granite Education Foundation.

The donation was delivered Monday afternoon by Real Salt Lake, Utah Royals FC, America First Charitable Foundation and America First Credit Union.

“We saw it on the news and we were like we are a soccer organization, we have tremendous partners like America First Credit Union, we just finished an event where we had some of these shoes and we knew we could do this and pull it off and felt this was a great need we could provide for the community,” said Kyle Schroeder, vice president of Community Relations for Real Salt Lake.

When the Granite Education Foundation was broken into on Christmas Eve, the thieves smashed through the glass doors and took an estimated $50,000 of donated goods from the warehouse, including shoes, clothing and electronics.

“They stole a TV and they caused a lot of damage to our facility,” Prince said.

Thanks to generous donations from the community, many of the stolen items were replaced quickly. But there was one thing the foundation still needed.

Granite Foundation needed new shoes

“Shoes especially were really difficult for us, because for a few weeks there we were having trouble filling sizes that we needed, so this is going to be a really big boon to what were able to provide to our students,” Prince said.

Each year, the foundation distributes more than 1,200 pairs of new shoes to students in the district, already this year they’ve given out 1,000. For some students, it may be the only new pair of shoes they receive this year.

“When donations like this come in, and when they’re brand names it’s even more for the students because they’re just so excited to receive something that is trendy as well,” Prince said.

Along with donating the new shoes Monday, volunteers, like Real Salt Lake defender Justen Glad, donated time sorting food. Over the weekend, the foundation received approximately 25 pallets of food thanks to the Scouting for Food drive.

“With the support they give us, it just feels right to reciprocate it and do some good and help out,” Glad said.

Every month the Granite Education Foundation distributes between 4,500 to 6,000 weekend meal kits to students. The food donated over the weekend will help fill some of those kits for Granite School District families in need.

“It’s incredible when not only a gift comes in but people want to get involved,” said Prince.

The Granite Education Foundation is always in need of donations, especially weekend meal kits. To learn how to make and donate the kits, click here.