“Give Cold Feet the Boot” event provides Idaho children with warm winter footwear

ROBERTS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - Optum Idaho is partnering with the Idaho State Department of Education and C-A-L Ranch Stores to hold its second annual giving campaign and celebration called “Give Cold Feet the Boot.” 

The Idaho State Department of Education chose eight elementary schools across Idaho to receive the donation this year, doubling last year’s number. All of the students at Roberts Elementary School will walk away from school on Wednesday with new, warm winter boots. 

C-A-L Ranch Stores is also donating a pair of socks to each child, helping to ensure little feet are kept warm this winter season. School staff gave each student a Roberts Elementary t-shirt to match.

For the safety of everyone involved, there was very limited contact between Give Cold Feet the Boot staff and students. 

“Optum Idaho is committed to serving communities throughout our state,” Optum Idaho Executive Director, Georganne Benjamin said. “Thousands of Idaho students arrive at school each morning with cold feet because they don’t have proper winter footwear, which threatens their ability to learn and puts a strain on dedicated teachers, administrators, counselors and support staff. Together with our partners, we are helping to address this concern this winter.” 

Students gathered in the lunch room, one grade at a time, to try on their new boots. But first, the students yelled a big “thank you” to their donors. The kids were fitted earlier in the year to make sure they got the right size.

“We’ve seen some pretty awesome kids that are a little less fortunate that don’t have boots," Jason Miller, Vice President of marketing with C-A-L Ranch said. "And so it’s really fun and really rewarding to see that they’ll have boots to wear to keep their feet warm throughout the cold winter.”

Roberts Elementary School counselor, Brittney King, says her school was selected based on need by the Idaho Department of Education.

“A lot of families in this area are just really thankful for this opportunity to have new snow gear," King said.

Field care coordinator for Optum Idaho, Taresa Crow says Optum and C-A-L Ranch are excited to help contribute to the children's’ overall wellbeing.

“We’re having a lot of fun with this," Crow said. "We love seeing the expressions on kids’ faces and just being able to give back to the community.”

Cold feet make it difficult to learn and organizers hope that this donation will help kids learn better and live better.

Laken is a fifth grader at Roberts Elementary School and she says she is going to use her new boots on the farm. Abraham is also in fifth grade and he says he will use his boots when he works with his dad. He says he is looking forward to playing outside without getting his feet wet.

“We need them for a lot of different things, like playing in the snow, and helping somebody else,” Fourth grader, Livia said.