WEST HILLS : Charity Pays for Students’ New Shoes

About two dozen San Fernando Valley children left school Thursday with new shoes in their arms as the Assistance League of the San Fernando Valley kicked off its holiday charity effort for schools.

The students, from Justice Street School in Canoga Park, were paraded into a discount shoe store at Fallbrook Mall at their lunch break, accompanied by half a dozen teachers and league members, many of whom are former teachers.

Julianne Campbell, a teacher at Justice Street School, said shoes are among the chief needs of poor students at Justice Street, both among local children and those bused in from Los Angeles.

“Many of them, their parents are out of work and they just don’t have the money,” she said.

Some of the children who trooped into Payless Shoesource sported worn tennis shoes with splitting seams. Most the children gave shoe sizes smaller than their actual size turned out to be. One fourth-grade girl, who said she needed a size 5 before finding her foot had grown to a 7, wore tennis shoes so thoroughly aged that her foot protruded at several points.

She chose a pair of solid brown oxfords. Another girl, a third-grader, settled on a pair of brown cowboy-style shoes.

“I love them,” she said. “My mom’s going to love them.”

Jeanette Devine, an official with the assistance league, said the all-woman organization will buy shoes for two other local schools. The league raises money through fund-raising events and necklace sales, she said. It also provides backpacks for children when the school year begins.