​Pennywise was able to connect a local art teacher to our grantee, Roberto’s Kids, and the result was new shoes for kids in Croatia...

For the past few years the art teacher at the Richmond Elementary School (Richmond, VT USA) conducted a project involving her fourth grade students painting two pairs of matching canvas shoes the same way. The students got to keep one pair and the other was intended to be sent to a child somewhere else in the world, specifically somewhere where it might otherwise be difficult for the children to get new sneakers. The sneakers come with a letter from the child who painted them, offering the opportunity for kids from different cultures to create pen pal relationships.