In partnership with PrimeTime585, a local organization that engages young adults through a shared love of sports, Wegmans hosted a shoe drive at 18 Rochester-area stores, giving employees an opportunity to donate gently used shoes for students in need across Greater Rochester and the surrounding areas.

When Penfield Wegmans employees Nicole and Dan Berthod heard about the shoe drive, they were eager to get involved. Rather than simply donating a few gently used pairs, the couple took it a step further and purchased and donated 50 brand-new pairs of shoes in various sizes and styles.

Nicole and Dan explained that they hadn’t set out to purchase and donate 50 pairs. They were simply looking for a way to give back. Once they were at the store, and thinking about how happy the kids would be to receive the shoes, they couldn’t stop.

“We go to the store, and we load up the cart, and we’re like ‘okay, that wasn’t bad. Let’s go back.’ We load up another cart and we were like ‘let’s do it again a couple of weeks later,’ we load up another cart,” said Nicole.

Hear more from Nicole and Dan on Rochester’s WROC 8.

A few weeks after donating the shoes, the couple had the opportunity to hand them out to students at two schools in the Rochester City School District. WROC was on site for the event.

This was the second consecutive year Wegmans and PrimeTime585 have teamed up to provide shoes to students in need. A $5,500 donation from Wegmans bought 120 new pairs of shoes for students at School No. 22 and School No. 9 in the Rochester City School District. During the two-week shoe drive, Wegmans employees donated more than 500 pairs of shoes that were distributed to students in need across Greater Rochester and the surrounding areas.