BRADENTON HERALD

August 13, 2008

Tomato farm's donation completes shoe drive goal

By MAURA POSSLEY

A local tomato farm filled the gap Tuesday for Stillpoint House of Prayer's mission to fit every migrant child with a new pair of shoes.

The annual shoe drive led by Stillpoint's Sister Nora Brick has raised $20,000, buying gift certificates for about 1,600 children before they start school.

"Isn't it marvelous?" said Brick, who opened the Bradenton organization to serve immigrants in need.

McClure Farms, owner of Palmetto's West Coast Tomato, delivered the $5,000 that Brick needed Tuesday.

"They provide a valuable service for a lot of migrant workers and a lot of other people," said Bob Spencer, a company owner. "It just made sense for us to get involved."

Spencer and owners D.C. McClure and Corrine McClure presented Brick with the donation to give shoes to children like Jonathan Martinez, a 10-year-old who is getting ready for the fifth grade at Prine Elementary.

He showed off a brand-new pair of silver, red and black Skechers at Stillpoint on Tuesday. Martinez said he expects to do a lot of studying when school starts.

This year's economy has been especially hard on the community, Brick said. Farmworkers also have seen less work, she said, because of dry weather that made for less landscaping needs, a housing crisis that meant no construction work and a salmonella scare that ended the local tomato industry's picking season early.

"We called and asked them how much they needed," said Fritz Stauffacher, of West Coast. "We wanted to help out, of course. They're just a great group of people."

Brick said the angels that contributed to this year's shoe drive fitted "a good many" of migrant children's feet. She estimated there are between 18,000 and 20,000 migrant families living in Manatee County.

"I believe a lot in angels," she said, "and I read the angels were out of work because we do not employ them."