Janel MacLean started customizing shoes for Parkwood Elementary School students last year as a way to help them freshen up their old shoes. After seeing an Instagram Reel of a teacher in Toronto that purchased Air Force 1s for her entire class of students to customize, MacLean was inspired to do something.

"That was the spark that I needed," MacLean said. "If she could do it for 22 students, I could do it for every one of my fifth graders."

On Dec. 13, students attended an assembly where they were surprised with their very own pair of the popular Nike shoes.

She needed to raise about $7,000 and started with putting out a Facebook post in September.

"The community was amazing and the money started coming in," MacLean said. "My goal was just to have these 75 students know they are loved."

She learned every student's shoe size with the help of math interventionist Jarret Harrison.

"We had students trace their foot and put down their shoe size," MacLean said. "Then we created a bar graph with that information."

She also did a digital art project as a mock contest asking the fifth graders to design their own dream shoe on a template of a blank Air Force 1.

"I told them I would be choosing a few students to help me design the shoes I get," she said. "Today, little do they know, I will be choosing them all."

Music teacher Katie Hernandez helped MacLean write a Pattonville Education Foundation (PEF) grant to help purchase supplies that students will use during art class to customize their own shoes.

The students will be able to take home their customized Air Force 1s before winter break.

View last year's video here: https://fb.watch/hq2HgZazRW/