While many 13-year-olds are showered in gifts at their bar mitzvahs, a teenager from El Paso, Texas, decided to use the opportunity to give back to those in need instead.
In lieu of gifts, Drew Frank asked his bar mitzvah guests to make donations, which he then used to buy new shoes for Beall Elementary School students in South Central El Paso.
“I’m giving sneakers to these kids who may not otherwise have these sneakers,” Frank explained to the El Paso Times. “I wanted to give back to these kids who are less fortunate than me.”
After raising more than $30,000 in donations, Frank used the money to purchase around 400 pairs of Nike sneakers for the students.
“Anybody who knows me knows how passionate I am about sneakers, but I also know that not everybody in our community is not as fortunate as I am,” he told KFOXTV.
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The shoe drive was put together in collaboration with Braden Aboud Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving the health and educational development of youth in El Paso. “In honor of his bar mitzvah, Drew has joined our efforts to put new tennis shoes on the economically disadvantaged children of El Paso,” reads a statement from the foundation.
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