By Kaia James, September 22, 2026
On the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Center for Community Engagement organized a group of Cal Poly Pomona students to volunteer sorting shoes with the nonprofit Shoes That Fit at its warehouse in Upland, California. The 16,000-square-foot warehouse holds shoes that are either distributed to local schools or are shipped out for other communities in need across the U.S.
Shoes That Fit is able to provide new athletic shoes for students in need through various channels. The nonprofit has long-standing partnerships with companies such as Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack and has received bulk donations from brands in the past, such as Hibbett Shoes.
Teachers can request services from Shoes That Fit, on behalf of their institutions through the request form.
Lauren Bernal, service-learning and volunteer coordinator for the CCE, said 20 CPP students, four staff members and additional faculty and community volunteers participated. From 9 a.m. to noon, volunteers sorted through shoes and stickered boxes.
In previous years, the CCE has committed themselves to creating volunteer opportunities on the anniversary of 9/11 by partnering with local organizations such as Shepherds Pantry and L.A. Works.
Bernal said her vision for partnering with Shoes That Fit on the anniversary of 9/11 was to transform a “very sad day to something that is giving back to the community.”
Shoes That Fit was created after Elodie Silva McGuirk learned from an elementary school teacher that one of her students came to school with broken, ill-fitting shoes that were hurting him but had to continue wearing them. McGuirk felt inspired to share that story and enlisted the help of her colleagues and community members to get shoes for students like the young boy from that story.
During the 2024-25 school year, the non-profit provided access to shoes for around 218,000 kids across the U.S., according to Kylee Paulson, manager of administration for Shoes That Fit.
Shoes that Fit, which launched in the Claremont area, looks forward to opportunities to partner at the local level, Paulson said.
“We love to see that starting early,” Paulson said. “Having people come in and volunteer, it shows these kids that there are people in the world that they may not know but know that they matter and that their comfort and progress in life is important, and we want to help facilitate that.”
Rei Vargas, a landscape architecture student said they received an email about the opportunity to volunteer. Vargas was aware of the intention for it to be a 9/11 remembrance activity but saw it overall as an opportunity to “spread goodness and hope.”
Volunteer Rachel Flores, a lecturer in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science and director of the Dietetic Internship Program, said many of the students she teaches are too young to remember the 9/11 attacks.
Flores recognized that for people living in California at the time of the attacks, it possibly “felt remote”, but she has continued to be mindful of the fact that students she encounters may have familial connections or close connections to that day, in the Twin Towers.
“We have to take into account; we don’t know our student stories,” Flores said. “I think it’s also important to remember that you don’t have to be directly affected by something to feel a connection to it.”
