One day when Kenton was living and working in Nairobi, Kenya at an orphanage with about 140 kids – he was walking to church with all the kids. I looked down at the little girl in a white dress next to me and was shocked to see that her shoes were way too small. They were so small she had to cut open the front of her shoes to let her toes stick out.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have a pair of shoes that could adjust and expand?” Kenton recalls thinking
That was the day when the idea for The Shoe That Grows was born.
Sometimes, the simplest invention can change millions of lives. That is exactly what happened with inventor Kenton Lee when created “The Show That Grows” which can adjust its size, allowing children in impoverished nations to grow up without having to go barefoot. The shoes, which come in catch-all Small and Large sizes, can grow 5 sizes and last at least 5 years.
According to The Shoe That Grows, “There are over 300 million children who do not have shoes. And countless more with shoes that do not fit.” Children without shoes are susceptible to injuries and parasites that infect humans through our feet. The problem with ordinary shoe donations is that they are soon outgrown, which is exactly the problem that these new shoes would fix.
Kenton really believes in practical compassion and that there is nothing more important than loving each other. Practical Compassion is all about doing things to help people have a better regular, everyday life.
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