For the last 10 years Bookmans has been a proud sponsor of the Educational Enrichment Foundation (EEF), which is a phenomonal and inspirational program that supports low-income and at-risk youth in the Tucson community. Since 1983, EEF's mission has been to provide resources to students in need, and to enrich student learning in the Tucson Unified School District. Their Special Needs program caters to specific needs of the students, such as vision and hearing care, and to provide clothing and shoes. Since the late 80's the EEF Shoe Shopping Program has been in operation, making sure that students who need new shoes anytime during the school year will have access to them. Each year, EEF partners with Payless Shoes to host up to eight shoe shopping days for the children. Each day is funded by a local business, civic group or individual donor that provides financial resources and volunteers to assist the students in choosing their new shoes. This is where Bookmans steps in.

Over the last decade, Bookmans has contributed more than $23,000 to the Shoe Shopping program, enabling hundreds of students to pick out new cool kicks of their choice. And each year we try to make the event even better and more exciting for the kids. For instance, at this year's shoe shopping event on December 11th, every student was also given a cool Bookmans t-shirt, stickers, yo-yos and so much more. This event is also an excellent opportunity to encourage literacy and a love of reading among the students, so each child was able to choose a few novels or picture books from a wide selection of Bookmans offerings. It has been an honor to build a relationship with Payless and the Educational Enrichment Foundation through the Shoe Shopping Program and it is incredibly rewarding to experience the kids' excitement and gratitude at each shoe shopping event. We at Bookmans look forward to many shoe shopping days to come!

To learn more about how you can support this important organization, please visit: http://www.tusd.k12.az.us/eef/default.html

And to see pictures from this event, please check out our flickr page!