Every non-profit has a story, a purpose, a reason why and I would like to use this page to inform you of why we decided to start this organization.  

A few years ago a friend and I decided to take her younger brother, Shaun, to Sky Zone in Evansville.  As we were about to leave Shaun ran out of his house excited and smiling ready for this adventure but she noticed he didn't have shoes on, just some flip flops that looked like they barely fit him.  "Shaun we are going to Evansville you can't wear those go grab a pair of shoes."  Suddenly Shaun's smile quickly faded, the pep in his step abruptly ended and he quietly spoke these words that broke my heart.

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"I don't have any shoes." 

 

Something most of us take for granted, just a simple task every morning when we were kids and went to school or outside to play we would grab our shoes lace them up and run out the door.  Here in the same town I grew up in my eyes were opened to the fact that for some kids life isn't that simple or worry free.  It also got me thinking back to my days working at The Cliff Hagan Boys & Girls Club about some of the children there.  It was a requirement there to have closed toe shoes because of the liability with all the activities going on, however I started to reminisce about the quality of some of the shoes I witnessed each day but didn't think much of back then.  Not only are there some children that do not have shoes period, but there are also kids that have older shoes, maybe shoes that have holes in them, shoes they had outgrown, or hand-me-downs that they had yet to grow in to.  Something had to be done to help these kids, and thus the Dannheiser Fund for Kids was founded.

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The big question that comes after you discover a need in the community and a purpose for your organization is how are we going to use our resources to meet these needs.  Each year we are going to raise funds throughout the year and based on the amount we raise we will be able to determine the number of kids we can impact.  In addition to providing these children with a pair of shoes we are also going to work with local non-profits to offer research based programs that are going to contribute life enriching opportunities for these kids.   

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On our next page we discuss the core focus for the programs we will use to help make a life-long difference in these children's lives.