November 8, 2017—Foot Levelers recently donated 150 laptops to the Roanoke City Public School System. The school district educates 13,800 students in the area, with many children in need. The high-quality machines will be in students’ hands as early as November 8th. Founded in Dubuque, Iowa in 1952, Foot Levelers has called Roanoke “home” since 1988.
“We’re both honored and humbled to give back to our community in this way,” says Foot Levelers Senior Vice President Steve Stone. “Many of our employees have children in the Roanoke School System, or are products of the school system themselves—in fact, I am a proud graduate of Roanoke City Public Schools’ Gibboney Technical Center. So we know how hard the teachers and administrators work to prepare children for success in the digital age, and we hope this donation supports that incredible work. Kudos to team members Karen Anderson in Purchasing and Brian Boggs and Lamont Clements in I.T. who were instrumental in making this happen.”
School district reps were delighted by the donation. “Just wow!” said Roanoke City Public Schools Director of Technology Mark Thompson. “That was extremely generous. These were newer computers and so we thought, ‘this is a great opportunity and we can’t pass it up.’” He added: “We keep very close numbers on our student to computer ratio, so we’re going to look at the schools who have the greatest need and then we’ll be working with them to get these computers in [the students’] hands.”
Foot Levelers has long been philanthropic in its community. In May, the company kicked off an unprecedented partnership with Roanoke’s Fire-EMS, providing 165 of the Star City’s first responders with custom orthotics. Foot Levelers is also the title sponsor of the Foot Levelers Blue Ridge Marathon, the world-famous “toughest road marathon” that runs along the stunning Blue Ridge Parkway, with proceeds benefitting local charities. In 2016, the marathon generated more than
$592,000 for the local economy;; over the past seven years, it has added more than $3.2 million.
Source: Foot Levelers