Shoes for Ellie: Child’s passion for shoes bring hope to community

The Keen Family and close friends are hosting the “1st Annual Shoe Drive: Shoes for Ellie” to honor late daughter, Eleanor Grace Keen, at the Foundation Academy on November 21, 2020. Proceeds will go to the Foster Family Support in Middle Georgia to help children in foster care acquire shoes.

Eleanor Grace Keen, fondly known as Ellie, passed away on July 15 of this year due to unknown circumstances at just 18 months old. Doctors were unable to determine the exact cause of death and deemed it Sudden Unexplained Infant Death (SUID), according to Ellie’s aunt, Karlyn Weldon.

“When they did the autopsy, their actual response was that she was anatomically perfect – that there was nothing [wrong],” Weldon stated.

Krista Keen, Ellie’s mother, went in to wake Ellie and her twin brother, Eli, one morning to get them started for the day. To her shock, Ellie was unresponsive. The family then embarked on a journey they would never have imagined that they would go on. First responders arrived and immediately provided support for the family. Deputies and firemen alike grieved the loss of the sweet, little girl and stayed with Keen through the next steps. Moved by the compassion and thoughtfulness of the first responders, Keen and sister, Weldon, delivered angel pins to those who had helped on that fateful day.

“The deputies have them in their car and the firemen have them,” Weldon said. “One of the guys said that he’d wear it every day, to every call until he retires. He said, ‘I see her face every day.’”

Weldon warmly recalled, “Ellie’s thing was – even being an 18-month-old child – she loved shoes. She would walk up and down the hallway in Krista’s high-heeled shoes. At the daycare, she knew which shoes belonged to which kid. So at the end of the day, when they were getting ready to go home, she would pick up the shoes and carry them over to the little kids in her class.”

On the day of the funeral, the Keen’s friends put together a Facebook post asking followers to take a picture of a pair of shoes and post with the hashtag, “#shoes4ellie” and to tag parents, Krista and Todd Keen. The thoughtful posts were to celebrate and surface beautiful memories of Ellie while the family faced one of the hardest days of their lives.

Before the family knew it, they were receiving pictures from so many people – including pictures of the firefighters’ boots and hats of those who responded to the call. After witnessing the support from the community, the family decided to partner up with the Foster Family Support in Middle Georgia to collect shoes for those in foster care to honor Ellie’s peculiar passion.

Foster Family Support in Middle Georgia (FFSMG) is a non-profit organization that serves foster families associated with DFCS and private agencies in Houston, Peach, Crawford and Twiggs counties. According to their official Facebook page, FFSMG “supports foster families in their mission to serve out James 1:27 (NIV) ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’ FFSMG runs a clothing closet, raises awareness, and supports the needs of foster families.”

In preparation for the big event, a Facebook page was created with the mission statement, “Making kids smile, one pair of shoes at a time.” Realizing how strongly Ellie cared about shoes, Weldon and the rest of the family confidently believe that, “Had she (Ellie) been older, she would have been passionate about this for Christmas for the less fortunate.” Many of the Keen’s friends have contributed to the Foster Family Support in Middle Georgia before, so they believe that it definitely would have been something Ellie would want to be a part of.

Though this will be the first year of the shoe drive, the family is hoping for a great turn out. They’ve fashioned the event to also be like a celebration of life, friends and family with food trucks, bounce houses, fun yoga classes and face painting. They want the public to know that whether they are donating or not, the event is more to get the word out and spread hope to the community in many ways. “It’s about bringing kids together,” Weldon said. In lieu of COVID-19, the amount of social interaction between community members has decreased to an alarming degree. They would like to bring more positivity to the community, especially with Christmas just around the corner.

Ellie Grace Keen, though taken so young, is making moves to impact so many lives. “Just because she’s not physically here doesn’t mean she’s not here every day,” Weldon declared proudly. The family wishes to keep her memory alive and thriving by hosting the event for many years to come.

Shoes have an underrated, but an incredibly vital part in our society. Billions of shoes are worn every single day to take people to great places, and the Keens want to make sure that those less fortunate can have a pair that they are proud to walk in. The Keen family will be hosting the 1st Annual Shoe Drive – “Shoes for Ellie” on Saturday, November 21 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Foundation Academy at 2157 Houston Lake Rd. in Perry, Ga. For those in the community who wish to donate but are uncomfortable with a public event or are from out of town, the Keens and friends have created an Amazon wish list for easy purchasing. They are accepting donations of new children’s shoes and socks (Velcro or slip on shoes are preferred for small children). All sizes are needed and donations will be taken up from now until December 11. Donation drop-off locations include: Convenient Care (in Perry, Byron and Fort Valley), Hello Beautiful Salon in Perry, Advanced Eyecare Center in Perry and Homegrown Yoga in Warner Robins. For more information or questions, please email shoes4ellie@gmail.com.

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