Sojourner’s Truth Staff
The fourth annual Delroy Church Angels Wings Foundation Cleat Event was held on Saturday, July 9 at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Steven and Caroline Lewis put together funds from donations and private monies – including their own – in order to purchase hundreds of pairs of athletic footwear, and accessories, for whatever youth in the community needed them.
In addition to over 400 pairs of cleats donated to neighborhood youth on Saturday, the Foundation gave away 300 mouth pieces, 400 pairs of socks and 300 bags full of toiletries – soap, deodorant, foot powder, tooth paste, tooth brushes, body wash and coupons to Dick’s Sporting.
Attendees were treated to hot dogs, waters, chips and ice cream.
The couple was inspired by their son, Delroy, who passed away in 2018. He was a football coach and mentor to so many youth. “He was always trying to help,” said Steven Lewis. After their son passed, “we jumped in, grabbed the baton and started running,” he said.
Their son’s girlfriend gave them the idea for a footwear giveaway and the donations started in 2018. Due to the pandemic, 2020’s event was called off and restarted a year ago in 2021, although then a degree of pandemic uncertainty prevented the Lewis’s from collecting as many donations as they had hoped for.
The mission of the Foundation, a non-profit agency, is to provide athletic equipment, sport physicals, academic support, team meals and athletic enhancement to adolescents in northwest Ohio. The Foundation also hosts winter coat giveaways.
This year’s sponsors included Taylor Kia, Hannah’s Socks, Frostbite Ice Cream, 107.5, 95.7 and DJ Big Rube.
