Tradehome Shoes partners with EES to provide shoes to area children

ELLSWORTH – You never know what one idea could turn into or the impact it could have. Just ask Ellsworth Community School District student Kaia Jacobson. What began as a way to help her classmates has grown into a partnership impacting thousands of children and involving an NFL team.

In December 2020, Jacobson and her classmates in Courtney Langer’s fourth grade class at Ellsworth Elementary School learned about giving back to the community and how to implement action steps to help others. The first step in the process was to notice a problem.

“Kaia Jacobson noticed that other fourth graders didn't have shoes that fit and some students had shoes that were worn out,” Langer said. “She went to her dad, Mark Jacobson, who is the Vice President of Store Personnel at Tradehome Shoes. He generously found pairs of shoes for a variety of students in fourth grade.”

But Kaia Jacobson wanted to go bigger. She rallied her class to get involved and help others in the community on a larger scale. The 22 students brainstormed a marketing plan to raise enough money to purchase 50 new pairs of shoes. They called it “Kicks for Kids.”

Nilssen’s grocery store donated the space on a Saturday for the kids to have a stand. The class rotated shifts and students’ families donated baked goods as a “thank you” gift to hand out. Local companies such as Pierce Pepin Cooperative Services also hosted donation boxes at their facilities where people could donate money or new shoes.

In one weekend, the class raised $2,105, Langer said. Tradehome Shoes also do- nated shoes and ouered EES a partnership to buy shoes for its back-to-school event each year, at cost.

“This partnership is going on its fourth year, where Mark has continued to support EES,” Langer said.

Even bigger According to Langer, Mark Jacobson has expanded this mission and has led the company to start a new initiative called “Trade at Home, Give at Home.”

“This is now their ‘giving back’ portion of the company,” Langer said. “They started a brand called Century where it started with socks and for every pack of socks sold, donations of socks were given to the community. Now Century waterproofer donates $1 for every can sold to help purchase shoes for school children.”

“There’s a lot of companies out there that give back nationally, but we wanted to give back locally,” Mark Jacobson said. “So we wanted to give back in towns like Aberdeen, South Dakota, and Willmar, Minnesota, and all of these little communities that have supported us for all these years. So every single town that we have a presence in, we give back shoes to the local school.”

This year they raised enough money to donate 7,000 pairs of shoes and over 60,000 packs of socks to local communities.

“They also are coordinating with a number of schools to provide reduced cost shoes, like EES,” Langer said. “To allow the school to receive as many shoes as they need at a reduced cost.”

In September, several Minnesota Vikings players, such as Camryn Bynum, C.J. Ham, Harrison Phillips and Irv Smith Jr., along with retired Vikings Scott Studwell and Esera Tuaolo appeared at an event at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center in Eagan, Minn., where they teamed up with Tradehome Shoes to surprise 500 children in foster care with new shoes, socks and Under-Armour backpacks.

The Vikings event was the first "in person" giveaway that Tradehome has had for the shoes. Vikings players signed autographs and helped size shoes for 400-500 foster kids and their families. Families enjoyed a meal, games, and a DJ at the MN Vikings Training Facility.

Kaia Jacobson, Mark Jacobson, Tradehome Shoes team members, and Langer all volunteered at the event.

“This will hopefully be a yearly event as we continue to grow this mission!” Langer said.

As for Kaia Jacobson, what a feeling to see her idea grow from a classroom proj- ect to something auecting thousands of kids.

“This is super cool, being able to help change people’s lives for the better,” she told a Vikings reporter.

Tradehome Shoes Vice President of Store Personnel Mark Jacobson and retired Viking Esera Tuaolo at the Tradehome Shoes giveaway at the Vikings training facility.Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

In 2020, Kaia Jacobson and her classmates in Courtney Langer’s fourth grade class raised more than $2,000 to donate shoes to Ellsworth kids. Photo courtesy of Courtney Langer

A Vikings player hugs a little girl at the Tradehome Shoes giveaway event in September. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings