Parker-Egin Elementary students get a warm surprise

PARKER, Idaho (KIFI) - Excited voices filled the air as Parker-Egin Elementary School students were the recipients of brand new warm winter socks and winter boots Monday. The Boots came from Optum Idaho's 'Give cold feet the Boot' campaign.

Optum Idaho partners with Cal-Ranch and D&B Supply to provide these students with their new boots.

"So Optum Idaho provides the boots and they work with ourselves Cal Ranch as well as D&B Supply and we help in distributing those boots," said Jason Miller, the Vice President of marketing at Cal-Ranch.

He says they are more than happy to be involved with the boot campaigns.

"It's always super exciting to do that and to see the look on the kids faces and what their you know, their experience with the boots is so fun, very, very rewarding."

Kay Thompson, the school's principal, says when Optum Idaho first reached out to the school, she was in a bit of shock.

"When I first got the email that said that Optimum of Idaho wanted to give us boots, I was wasn't sure if it was real. It would just seem too good to be true. So but I contacted the company and they said, yeah, we want to give boots to every student, warm winter boots for every student in our school. And we're a very small rural school. So this is a great thing for us to have."

Thompson adds the students were prepped for the boot day as they measured each student's foot to make sure the size would be correct.

"We had to measure their feet in September and told them at the time that they were all going to get a new pair of snow boots for winter. It was pretty exciting."

She says when the students walked into school Monday they realized what the day was all about.

"They were so excited. I had a lot of them looking at the boxes this morning and going, Oh, when I get my boots, I'm going to wear them. I'm going to wear them all day. I'm not going to put my shoes back on. So and another student said I couldn't find my boots today. I am so glad that today's boot day."

The students are more than excited and are very grateful to have these new boots.