Girl’s Christmas wish provides hundreds with shoes

A girl’s Christmas wish to help others is providing shoes for hundreds of children.

Last Christmas, Madison Tatinski didn’t want presents for herself. Instead, she wanted to help others less fortunate than her.

“We were watching a video on this kid who collected money from a bake sale to help the kids who are less fortunate, and I thought that’d be cool if I could do something,” she said.

Her parents were surprised and touched by her request.

“She’s always been very loving and giving and caring,” mom Kari Tatinski said. “This just seemed huge, for a child of nine years old to ask for something for someone else and nothing for herself.”

Madison received 36 pairs of shoes last year, but once others found out about what she did, they wanted to help too. Strangers began offering shoes and monetary donations. And business owners allowed the Tatinskis to place boxes in their businesses for people to drop off their donations. In the last year, Madison has gathered 700 pairs of shoes. Her goal is to gather more than 1,000.

“I’m just hoping to make it grow really big,” she said. And she hopes to create her own non-profit.

If you’d like to contribute to Madison’s cause, you can email 1pairatatime@gmail.com or contact her on Facebook at the page Madison’s Mission 1 pair at a time.