Dallas Police and Energy Transfer ‘Share the Shoes’

The Northwest Neighborhood Police Team partnered with local companies Energy Transfer and Sunoco LP to donate more than 500 pairs of shoes to children who need them. 

Energy Transfer and Sunoco LP employees spent over $10,000 on new shoes for kids during the eighth annual Share the Shoes campaign. 

Share the Shoes was started in 2017 by now-retired officer Brian Nolff and is now run by officer Mike Villanueva and senior CPL. Jose Gamez, who has been involved for the last six years.

The program began because Dallas police officers were noticing children didn’t have good footwear and wanted to find a way to help.

“The shoe they’re wearing is sometimes two sizes too small,” Gamez said. 

He said he is glad to help the families by providing new shoes because it also “helps out the parents with the back-to-school stuff.”

This year, the events took place at the Grauwyler Recreation Center, the Marcus Recreation Center, and the Walnut Hill Recreation Center.

 Lisa Coleman, PR and communications supervisor at Energy Transfer, is one of the volunteers who helps hand out shoes. She said the event also serves as a way for the local police force to connect with the community.

“Really at the core of this program is getting to know the police officers as being an extension of their neighborhood community,” Coleman said. “We want the kids to feel safe around them.”

Gamez grew up in community programs run by the police and said personal interactions with officers can allow children to develop their own understanding of what police officers are like.

“You always hear the bad things that happen with police officers out there, [but] having that interaction as a child with police officers didn’t give me that, I didn’t look at officers that way at all,” Gamez said.

Employees and police officers hand out the shoes personally to each child, helping them choose a size and style that is right for them. The events take place at recreation centers and back-to-school events where the number of children can vary from around 40 to nearly 200.

As the Share the Shoes program has continued, volunteers recognize some of the kids who benefit from it. 

“I’ve seen them grow up little by little,” Gamez said. “I come every year and I see them older and a little wiser and that’s a great thing to see.”

Any shoes not given away at the events are kept by the police departments and handed out at back to school fairs or when a need arises. 

Coleman said the success of the Dallas program has encouraged Energy Transfer to increase efforts in other parts of Texas as well, and it ran a similar program in Houston for the first time this year.

“We’re partnering with one of those local neighborhood units in Houston,” Coleman said. “So we’re trying to expand this as much as possible.”