Van Subaru in North Kansas City partnered with the Church of the Redeemer’s Northland Infant Community Center (NICC) to provide free shoes during its “Love Promise Community Commitment” campaign on January 22, 2025.
The NICC, which is located behind the Church of the Redeemer, has been helping families since 2004 by providing families with diapers, clothing and other personal care items. On Wednesdays from 2-4 p.m. and one Saturday a month, the NICC offers free, gently used clothing for newborns through toddlers, and other infant personal care items such as underclothing, socks, shoes, coats, diapers and wipes, blankets, and books. In 2024 alone, they helped clothe over 2,400 children and gave out 2,000 packages of diapers.
NICC regularly partners with the local children’s hospital to provide safe sleep education and new bassinet pack’n plays. They also partner with Door Dash’s “Project Dash,” which helps send out clothing and diapers to families in the area that do not have transportation to the center.
“We were honored to be chosen for Van Subaru’s Love Promise shoe giveaway. We wash donated shoes but the fun of receiving a brand new pair of shoes is a treat for our familie,” writes Louise Thurlow, Director of the Northland Infant Clothing Center. “On the night of the event, the Van Subaru employees handled registration and fittings so that we could focus on making our patrons feel welcomed. They also made Sticker notes of Confidence that the children could choose to wear for the evening. Some of the favorites were “Fearless”, “Kind”, and “Loved.”
Parishioners donated over 20 crockpots of food filled with warm nourishing food, breads, muffins and desserts, allowing volunteers to spend quality time with patrons over a meal. During the event, they gave away about 60 pairs of shoes and were able to keep the remaining pairs to give out to NICC children and their families.
“It takes so many wonderful people and contributors to help our community. It is nice to now add Van Subaru and Subaru’s “Operation Warm” as a huge help to our Mission starting off our year in an amazing way. We felt the Love!”
This article was submitted by Louise Thurlow, Director of the Northland Infant Clothing Center and longtime member of Redeemer.
