Why? Numbers or Stories...

Statistics tend to fail at telling the whole story. While they are extremely helpful in some areas, the numbers don't tell the stories behind them. More often than not, the stories associated with the numbers in this chart are heartbreaking.

Over the past 10 years, Shoes 4 the Shoeless has delivered 107,503 pairs of shoes within the Greater Dayton, Ohio area. 

That's shoes to cover 215,006 feet including all 1,075,030 toes associated with them.

However, each person who has received a pair has a story. Their stories and the Shoes 4 the Shoeless story intersect over a simple pair of shoes. 

Those shoes though... that's the best part, those shoes allow the recipient to do things they might not have before... like run and jump without pain, go to school free of embarrassment, keep their feet dry and safe, get an after school job and have shoes to wear... these kinds of stories are endless and what keeps the organization going.

I share all of that, because as I sat going through "our numbers," this idea kept sinking into my thoughts.

Day in and day out, it can be easy to get caught up in the numbers, the data, and lose sight of what really matters; the people you work alongside and the people that you serve. This year, let's all try to focus on that last part. The people we work alongside and those we serve, if we do that, the world will be better for it and the "numbers" will speak for themselves.