EXCHANGE: Students trying to put shoes on Ugandan children

First we get to trace them out.

The assembly line was recently hard at work at Ellington School as Leslie Vigor's kindergarten students and their second-grade buddies in Andrea Eckhardt's class, along with their families, got some hands-on practice in helping others turn denim jeans into shoes for kids in Uganda.

The Ellington classes are partnering with Sole Hope, a North Carolina-based organization that puts closed-toe shoes on African children.

Making the shoe pieces is part of a yearlong service learning project designed to broaden the horizons and leadership skills of Ellington students.

[...] after watching a video about jiggers, sand fleas found in sub-Saharan climates that cause painful wounds to the feet, students wanted to do something to help.

The students held a "cutting party" to turn donated denim and plastic folders into pieces of shoes that will be put together in a factory in Uganda and distributed to children.

Enough denim was left over that students wanted to get their families involved, so they planned a second cutting party and showed off their leadership skills by telling parents and older siblings how to make the shoe pieces.

Kindergartner Alexa Dietrich concentrated on carefully tracing around a pattern piece while her older sisters, Alyssa and Rory, pitched in to help cut pieces.