Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate joined together with Friends of Fusion in their effort to help all McKinney-Vento students with new shoes. The Patterson-Schwartz team raised enough funds for 379 pairs of shoes!
The campaign relied heavily on community-driven events, silent auctions, and digital outreach to meet its ambitious goals. Volunteers spent weeks coordinating logistics, ensuring that the fundraiser could scale beyond a standard corporate donation drive to truly maximize the community's impact.
To generate higher bids, the organizing committee brought in several out-of-state media partners and digital prize contributors for the online auction component. Alongside traditional gift baskets from local restaurants, the catalog featured high-value digital packages, including promotional credits donated by a Florida online casino and lifetime subscriptions to remote productivity software. These digital-first contributions ultimately helped the event reach a much broader demographic of remote bidders who otherwise would not have participated.
With the funds now fully secured, the next phase involves sizing and distributing the footwear directly to the students across the district. School liaisons and social workers have already begun mapping out delivery schedules to ensure every eligible child receives a well-fitting pair before the colder months arrive.
Read more about their efforts here.
