Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Twenty missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will soon receive a free pair of $100 shoes.
Deseret First Credit Union is inviting the public to nominate a soon-to-be or current elder, sister or senior missionary to receive the shoes, according to a press release.
“One of the things that we do realize is that the financial sacrifice for a mission is a very important thing for not just members of the church but also members of our credit union,” Mike Cherry, marketing manager for Deseret First Credit Union, told KSL.com.
As a way to celebrate its 60th birthday this year, credit union employees wanted to give back to the LDS community they serve by donating the shoes, Cherry said.
Parents, relatives, friends and neighbors can nominate a missionary by visiting the missionary shoes section of the credit union website and including the reason the missionary should get new shoes, according to the press release.
The primary criteria for determining whether or not the credit union will give a missionary the shoes is if there is a financial need, Cherry said.
Cherry said they will look at every application, and it will be very difficult to narrow them down to 20, because “we honestly feel that every missionary deserves a new pair of shoes.”
“If we had the ability to buy everyone a pair of shoes, we would, but we're going to have to narrow it down to the 20 that we feel deserve it the most and then go from there,” Cherry said.
We honestly feel that every missionary deserves a new pair of shoes.
–Mike Cherry, marketing manager, Deseret First Credit Union
Those who wish to nominate a missionary must do so by Sunday at 11:59 a.m. The 20 missionaries will be selected next week, and the credit union will ship the shoes after May 25, Cherry said.
Distributing the shoes to missionaries in foreign countries may prove to be a challenge, but Cherry said they will do their best to get the shoes to them.
Deseret First Credit Union has never donated shoes to missionaries before, but this is not the first time it has served missionaries.
In 2013, the credit union completely outfitted 30 missionaries with all their clothing from the Sister Missionary Mall and Missionary Mall, Cherry said.
“Missions are expensive … we want to help, and especially those people who are in need of help with those missions, because it is something that is hard to prepare for and we understand the fact that it is something that is difficult and is a sacrifice and most people don't pay for something like that," Cherry said. "We want to help out, we want to show that we care about missionary work and we care about our members by doing these types of things for them," Cherry said.
Missionaries who are nominated who are not yet in the field must have their mission call, Cherry said.
