Fueled by slain teen’s gesture, brothers seek funding for new shoes for Tarrant kids
In her first summer job as a teenager in 1996, Dayna Sayed began working at a shoe store.
Her two younger brothers, then in elementary school in Arlington, were at times the recipients of classmates’ teasing because of the shared clothing they wore. The boys never had nice shoes.
“Just something that made going to school ... made it very hard,” Sam Sayed said.
When she had saved enough money, Dayna took Sam and Sharif to her store, Just for Feet, to select new sneakers. Sam picked a pair of Nike pumps, and Sharif chose Nike slants.
The gift from their sister meant there was one fewer thing that Sam and Sharif had to worry about and allowed them to focus on school and doing well.
In March of the next year, Dayna, 16, went with a sister to a house where there was a party and an argument over drinks. Someone upset in the conflict left, then returned in a vehicle and opened fire upon the house, killing Dayna, who was outside, Sam said. Police did not identify the assailant.
Sam was 11, and Sharif was 9.
In 2018, the brothers founded a nonprofit organization, Dayna’s Footprints, that is focused on raising funds to purchase shoes for needy youths in the region to help them to avoid the embarrassment stirred by being made fun of at school because of clothing.
In the organization’s first year, 53 children received new shoes. This year, with a new collaboration with the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine, where Sam Sayed is a first-year student, Dayna’s Footprints expects to purchase 120 pairs of shoes for children in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
This year’s fundraising effort involved a million-pound weightlifting challenge this month. A million-step challenge will follow in December.
The organization asked people participating in the challenges to use the hashtags #120for120 and #DaynasFootprints on social media to document progress. There is a workout plan on the nonprofit’s website to help someone reach the goals.
The children will pick their shoes at a Foot Locker in early January, just before classes resume in the new year.
The organization will collect donations via its website, daynasfootprints.com, until Jan. 1.
This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 1:41 PM.
