Caron Tabb is on a mission to help homeless youth — and erase some stigmas that get in their way.
“Most people believe that a homeless person is an adult male who suffers from substance abuse, when in fact we know this is not the truth about homelessness,” said Tabb, executive director of My New Red Shoes.
The San Mateo resident is working to help clothe the roughly 5,000 homeless school-aged children living in the Bay Area. She’s doing this through the Menlo Park-based nonprofit My New Red Shoes, which works with social service agencies, schools and the public to provide the children with new shoes and $50 gift cards for back-to-school shopping.
The nonprofit also holds a walk-a-thon to raise money for the cause. At this year’s “Walk In Their Shoes” fundraiser, Tabb expects more than 500 people to lace up in an effort to bring the issue of homelessness “away from the park and into downtown.”
Money raised will go toward My New Red Shoe’s goal of assisting 2,500 children in the Bay Area this year.
Giving homeless children that “extra-something special” for the first day of school is a cause that Tabb, 43, took up nearly two years ago. Prior to that, she held leadership positions with several Jewish agencies, both in Israel and the United States. Locally, she served as director of Israel in the Gardens, the San Francisco festival celebrating Israel and the Jewish community, and headed the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s Israel Center’s Travel Initiative.
But she shifted gears after spotting a My New Red Shoes ad on Craig’s List.
“Being the shoe-aholic that I am, it caught my attention,” Tabb joked. “But I knew that if I was going to be outside the Jewish community, I needed to be doing good somewhere else.”
Multiple components of the executive director position re-minded Tabb of her prior work — most notably the concept of tikkun olam, repairing the world.
“I wasn’t looking to leave the Jewish community,” said Tabb, a member of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame. “It was really the excitement of finding something that would be personally meaningful and professionally stimulating. So far, that’s proven to be right.”
Tabb was hired in October 2007, and has since introduced My New Red Shoes to a number of Bay Area Jewish groups, including schools. At the Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City, seventh grade teacher Amy Kurzeka worked with My New Red Shoes to design a program that has teens holding shoe drives and posting facts about homelessness around the campus.
My New Red Shoes organized a similar program at Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, where kids sorted shoes and signed cards as part of their Purim festivities.
My New Red Shoes’ “Kids Helping Kids” initiative will serve as the JCC Maccabi Games’ philanthropy program this summer in San Francisco. All athletes will participate in a penny drive, “Small Change is Big Change.”
“Teens are the leaders of tomorrow,” Tabb said. “They are the next senators, the next presidents. We want to empower them to make a difference in the community.”
Born in South Africa, Tabb moved to Israel as a child. Following a stint in the Israel Defense Forces, she led a group of South African students around Israel for a summer. That, Tabb said, was the start of a lengthy career in the Jewish sector.
These days, Tabb is working with plenty of non-Jewish organizations also composed of people who are “driven by the need, desire and the will to do good.”
“There is no other gratification than seeing the kids’ eyes when they get a gift card and new shoes,” Tabb said. “It gives you chills, and I would love more people to be able to experience that magic.”
“Walk In Their Shoes” is 1 p.m. April 26 at Washington Park in Burlingame and includes live music, homelessness education and a visit to a local homeless shelter. To participate or for more information about My New Red Shoes, visit www.mynewredshoes.org or call (650) 558-4868.