Carrie Jernigan, a 37-year-old lawyer, mother of 3 from Alma, Arkansas, was asked by her daughter, Harper, aged 9, if she could get some shoes for a classmate who was outgrowing his shoes.
At that moment, Carrie made a joke about having to buy out the entire Alma, Arkansas, Payless ShoeSource store (1,100 children's shoes, 350 pairs for adults) that was going out of business, just to get the right size, and then decided to actually do it and donate all of the shoes to needy kids in the area!
She walked up to the cashier and inquired about how much it would cost to buy ALL of the shoes in the store, and the store was Carrie's! The cost? The merchandise was about $21,000 before discounts.
All 1,500 shoes will be distributed by the Jernigan family on August 10, 2019 at the Alma Middle School located on Highway 64 East in Alma, AR.
A GoFundMe was set up to inspire others to do help offset the cost of back-to-school shopping around the country.