While on a recent shopping trip to the Payless ShoeSource in Fort Smith's Central Mall, Carrie Jernigan's 9-year-old daughter, Harper, asked if they could buy a pair of shoes for a boy at her school whose shoes are too small.
Jernigan and her three kids have a motto they recite every day when she drops them off for school: "be nice and kind."
So Jernigan decided to take Harper's idea 1,500 steps farther.
She bought all 1,500 pairs of shoes in the store, and she's giving them to needy people in the Arkansas River Valley.
"The Bible says we're the hands and feet of Jesus because he's not here to do it," Jernigan said Monday.
Payless has closed the Fort Smith store and is in the process of closing 2,500 of its North American stores after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February.
Jernigan, a lawyer who is president of the Alma School Board, said her initial thought was to give the shoes to Alma schools. At first, she bought about 400 pairs of shoes during the store's going-out-of-business sale. That was all the stock on hand.
Jernigan said she was sort of joking when she asked the clerk, "How much do you want for the rest of the shoes in the store?"
"She laughed, and then I saw her get kind of serious and say 'Can you leave your number?'" Jernigan said.
After hashing out a deal, Jernigan returned the next day to pick up the shoes. By that time, a shipment of another 1,000 or so pairs had arrived, so she bought those, too.
That's not counting about 300 pairs of flip-flops.
Jernigan won't say how much she spent on the shoes, but when she totaled up the receipts, they indicated she had "saved" about $21,000.
"I spent a fraction of that," she said. "I paid pennies on the dollar for these shoes."
Jernigan said the shoes range from small child sizes up to size 13 men's shoes, so not all of them are the right size for school-aged children.
"I thought about setting up on the side of the road in Alma with a sign that says 'Free shoes,'" she said.
Jernigan has given away 400 pairs so far.
Jernigan's generosity has inspired others. Businesses have been asking how they can help.
Jernigan said she probably doesn't have enough shoes for all the kids in Alma who need them, and they need more than shoes.
So the community has come together to do a back-to-school event called River Valley Kickstart, sponsored by Kibler Baptist Church in Alma.
The event will be held from 2 p.m.-6 p.m. on Aug. 10 at the Alma Middle School gym. Jernigan and others are donating shoes while businesses are donating socks, backpacks and school supplies. Some professionals are donating their services, such as haircuts and eye exams for the kids.
Jernigan still has shoes on her mind.
"I have received probably 200 messages from just local moms and dads telling me they are coming to get shoes and will get there as early as they can to to make sure they get a pair," Jernigan posted on her Facebook page Saturday. "So many in our community are desperate for new shoes to send their little ones back to school in. If you could see the messages it would break your heart. I do not want one kid to come to this event and we have to tell them we are out of shoes. That thought has consumed me the last few days."
Jernigan has been having strange encounters in the street.
"A gentleman just came up to me and handed me a thousand dollars cash," she said. "He said, 'I just want you to go spend this on those kids.' I said 'Done.'"
"I've ordered more shoes," said Jernigan, who is a former Crawford County justice of the peace.
She said Bekaert Corp. has pledged $2,000. The Belgian company, which makes steel wire and coatings, has a location in Van Buren.
State Rep. Bruce Coleman, R-Mountainburg, said he calls Jernigan "the shoe queen."
Alma Mayor Jerry Martin said he's proud of Jernigan and her kids, but he's quick to note that she's his daughter-in-law and her kids are his grandchildren.
"What we hope for, is that our community will grab a hold of this and make this something we can carry forward," Martin said. "We have different churches and organizations that had events planned that have realized what this could be by all of us coming together, so they are joining together to make this a very special event, one we hope will be the beginning of many."
Jernigan said she's been overwhelmed with the kind messages she has received -- about 3,000 of them -- and the acts of generosity that have taken place in her wake.
Donations for the back-to-school drive in Alma can be made to Kibler Baptist Church or through a GoFundMe account called Harper Jernigan's Back to School Shoe Drive, which had received $1,710 in donations as of Monday night.
Metro on 07/30/2019