East Muskingum Soccer Players go Barefoot

The East Muskingum School Soccer Boosters raised money for the soccer program as well as a cause they felt connected to through the very thing they use to play the sport..feet.

The Family Fun Day included a Barefoot Mile, walking without shoes to spread awareness about people in other countries who walk barefoot each day, also spreading knowledge about those sold into human trafficking whose shoes are often taken from them to make escape more difficult.

The man who started Joy International, an organization dedicated to saving those in Cambodia from human sale, Jeff Brodsky, shared why he hasn’t worn shoes in 5 years.

“1,838 days ago I was at a garbage dump in Pennon Cambodia,” said Brodsky. “We were searching children. There’s a lot of children that live in the garbage dump. Poor children that that’s where the fresh food is, so that’s where they literally live right there in the garbage dump. Well they’re at very high risk of being snatched by predators, sold into the brothels. We wanted to get to them before the predators did. We brought a lot of food to feed them and I noticed that most of them probably over 90 percent of them were barefoot.”

The players thought of the cause because of their feet but Soccer Boosters President Kevin Wagner said as they learned more it became clear that it was about more than just going without shoes.

“At first it was one of those, we just said ‘okay let’s just do it’ and then when you really get into it and understand what it is it makes you feel a greater purpose,” said Wagner.

The goal is to raise between 5 and 8 thousand dollars and Wagner said he’s confident they can do it. The money will benefit both the soccer team and Joy International.