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Pennsylvania couple John and Deborah Hausladen have made it their mission to serve those who serve their country. It all began in 2018 when their son, who was deployed to Afghanistan at the time, needed a new pair of sneakers. This simple request ultimately led to the Hausladens creating the nonprofit Sneakers for Soldiers which supplies sneakers to active-duty military members around the globe.
Sneakers for Soldiers work in collaboration with the Bryn Mawr Running Company, which gets them discounted shoes and provides a space for storage and shipping for the operation. Since sending out that first pair of shoes five years ago, the nonprofit has grown exponentially. "It's expanded into over 11-thousand service members in combat zones in imminent danger areas, the most hostile, the most rugged environments in the world," Deborah proudly shares.
The Hausladens don’t typically get to meet the soldiers who benefit from their initiative. However, they recently got a chance to hear from Will Jones, a U.S. Navy reservist who’s also from the Philadelphia area. Jones was deployed in Africa when he received a pair of shoes from the nonprofit and was grateful not just for what the shoes did for him, but for how they made him feel, saying, “It meant a lot getting that because it was a sense of home for me."
Source: 6 ABC