By Trevor Allison
Reporter
Baylor Photography and the Baylor chapter of the Wells Project will host feet-washing and a photo booth as part of TOMS Shoes’ One Day Without Shoes event.
The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday outside the Bill Daniel Student Center.
“One Day Without Shoes” is a worldwide event sponsored by TOMS Shoes in which participants go barefoot for a day to raise awareness of children who don’t have or can’t afford shoes.
This highlights the mission of TOMS, which donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair the company sells. TOMS calls this process the “One for One Movement.”
Houston junior Sarah Baker, a student photographer for Baylor Photography, had the idea for the event, in which Baylor Photography will be taking pictures of students in their bare feet.
“I’ve always been interested in TOMS, and Baylor doesn’t have an active TOMS club,” Baker said.
She said she wanted to come up with a way to get people excited about TOMS event and the One for One Movement.
Baker and her co-workers at Baylor Photography brainstormed some ideas for putting together an event before ultimately deciding to photograph students with the theme “Bear Your Soles.”
“It’s all to help get people excited about the One for One Movement,” Baker said.
Baker said she is also a member of The Wells Project at Baylor and the organization will be an important part of the One Day Without Shoes event.
Nashville senior Dustin Williams, one of the founders of Baylor’s chapter of the Wells Project, said the organization wanted to be involved with “One Day Without Shoes” when they heard the event involved Baylor Photography.
“We thought it would be cool if people could wash their feet before they take their photo,” Williams said.
He said the feet-washing sounded like a fun way to incorporate water into the event, as well as raise the profile of the Wells Project on campus.
“We’ll have the ability to talk to people and hang out,” Williams said. He also said they would collect the used “foot water” in a pool to demonstrate to students what it might look like to not have access to clean drinking water.
Williams said the Wells Project is a student organization that began at Baylor in 2010 to raise awareness of the 884 million people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water.
He said the Wells Project at Baylor has raised $10,000 to date to help provide clean water for people all over the world.
For more information about the event, email sarah_baker@baylor.edu. For more information on The Wells Project, email dustin_williams2@baylor.edu.
