MSU is a small part of the international movement initiated in 2006 when American traveler Blake Mycoskie met children in a rural Argentine village who did not own any shoes, said Emily Victor, an education junior and vice president of the MSU campus club for TOMS.

Mycoskie met a woman in Argentina with three children who collectively shared one pair of shoes. The woman began crying when Mycoskie gave the woman and her children shoes and explained that her three children were only able to go to school every three days because shoes were a required part of their uniform.

Today, TOMS Shoes gives one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes sold, Victor said.

According to a statement from the company, more than 400,000 pairs of shoes have reached children in need since the movement began about three years ago.

On Thursday, students involved in the MSU campus chapter for TOMS will be working to raise awareness by joining the international community in taking off their shoes and participating in a one mile barefoot campus walk, Victor said.

“I’m going to be going barefoot all day,” Victor said. “You kind of look funny and people will ask you why you’re going barefoot. This way, you can inform other people about the cause.”

Fighting global poverty
Although shoes might not seem like an essential basic need, Dave Drouillard, the president of the MSU campus chapter for TOMS and media arts and technology junior, said shoes are crucial to children in developing countries.

“Most of them can’t even afford shoes, so they can’t go to school,” Drouillard said. “In some countries kids have to walk miles to get water. Just a little cut on their foot could get infected, and because they don’t have medical attention they can’t even walk to get those basic needs. It’s really a huge deal that people take for granted.”

According to a statement from TOMS Shoes, wearing shoes can prevent many global health and education problems. In Ethiopia, for example, it is estimated that one million people are affected by Podoconiosis, a disease caused when walking without shoes in volcanic soil.

Rita Kiki Edozie, associate professor of international relations, said nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, such as TOMS Shoes make a positive impact in raising awareness about poverty in the developing countries, especially in the Southern hemisphere.

“I think this kind of activity is emerging as a result of new types of globalization where you have NGOs like TOMS Shoes which are embarking upon very creative alternatives and strategies to impact development and poverty reduction in developing countries around the world,” Edozie said. “Many children in poor communities do not have basic needs like clothing, so we look at how (developed nations) can try to get to those people.”

Edozie said although the movement is not a long-term fix for problems of global poverty, helping to raise awareness is a positive beginning to address such problems.

On campus
Students interested in getting involved Thursday are encouraged to register at the rock on Farm Lane at 5 p.m., Victor said.

There also will be an opportunity to buy TOMS shoes at the event.

In addition to organizing a campus walk, the MSU campus chapter for TOMS is holding a series of related events Friday, including raffling off a pair of TOMS shoes signed by the MSU football team, showing a TOMS documentary and working with the Residence Halls Association to bring students four different bands, including A Letter To You.

“I’m so excited about the events,” Victor said. “We will continue the event if it’s raining. It would take away from the event if we moved it inside. (Children) have to face life with no shoes in all elements. We’ll walk through it.”

Drouillard said the event is important for the entire TOMS movement.

“I also knew I wanted to do something more, but I didn’t know what,” he said. “I’ve always been interested in helping children so this is basically exactly what I wanted to do. It’s such a big issue that people really don’t know about.”