Riedel Foundation awards $2,100 grant to provide shoes to Hannibal elementary school children

HANNIBAL, Mo. — The George H. Riedel Foundation recently awarded a $2,100 grant to Shoes from the Heart, a non-profit organization that makes sure children in need have essential footwear. The grant will allow the organization to stock shoe closets at three Hannibal elementary schools.

Shoes from the Heart is based in Macon and has worked with Hannibal elementary schools for several years. The goal is to fully stock the shelves at all the elementary schools and the Early Childhood Center. Each closet has 50 pairs of girls and boys shoes in a variety of sizes.

Donnie Bonuchi is the president of Shoes from the Heart. He recently got a call from a Hannibal grade school requesting help. A child there had been wearing ill-fitting snow boots to school for months because he didn’t have any tennis shoes. Bonuchi delivered a new pair of shoes to the school. On his way, he called the Riedel Foundation office, looking for a better solution.

“We don’t want any child going without shoes,” Bonuchi said in a press release. “We’ve supplied Hannibal schools with shoes in the past, but we want to establish a closet at each school so they have shoes on hand when they are needed. The Riedel grant will help us accomplish that.”

Shoes from the Heart also works with Head Start in Hannibal and foster care organizations to supply shoes.

The Riedel Foundation provides grants to non-profit organizations that benefit Hannibal residents. Since it was founded in 2000, the foundation has awarded approximately $7.5 million in grants in Hannibal.