Free Shop Crawley provides free school shoes for children across the town

The shoe appeal was launched with the aim of providing new, well fitted, quality school shoes to children in need across Crawley.

The appeal raised £6,000 with the support of kind donations throughout the year as well as a fundraising comedy night hosted by Romesh Ranganathan at the Hawth earlier this Summer.

Clarks in County Mall were kind enough to open their doors after hours on Sunday, so the funds could be put to good use. 112 children, in the most need across the town, were invited to join the team in store and were treated to the full Clarks experience – having their feet measured and then selecting their favourite new shoes to wear in to the new school year with pride.

Laura Jayne Wainwright, CEO of Free Shop Crawley said: “The aim of this project was to provide children across Crawley with well fitted new shoes. Shoes which will support healthy growth and development and allow them to run and play comfortably.

“We chose to work with Clarks not only because they provide shoes of a premium quality, but they offer a truly memorable experience for the children who often miss out."

Following the launch event in Clarks, Free Shop Crawley will be helping another 150 children with new shoes before school starts with donations of new or barely worn school uniform and shoes.

Phil Brown, Area Manager for the Crawley Clarks store said: "It was a pleasure to be able to support Free Shop Crawley in providing children with the full Clarks experience.

"We opened the store outside of normal trading hours, to ensure each child got a dedicated fitter, had the time and space to choose their perfect shoes and left feeling known and cared for."

The shoe appeal continues this Thursday at the Free Shop premises in Gossops Green, to provide new and nearly new shoes and school uniform items for anyone in need.