CORRECTING and REPLACING Delaware’s Homeless Receive Shoes and Foot Exams Through Heart to Soles Event with Help from Christiana Care Health System

WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Beginning of seventh graph should read: For this year’s event, Guess?, Inc. is providing 60 pairs of new shoes... (sted: For this year’s event, Red Wing Shoes is providing 60 pairs of new shoes...).

“People were overjoyed last year when Hearts to Soles came”

The corrected release reads:

DELAWARE’S HOMELESS RECEIVE SHOES AND FOOT EXAMS THROUGH HEART TO SOLES EVENT WITH HELP FROM CHRISTIANA CARE HEALTH SYSTEM

With winter approaching, Heart to Soles and volunteers from Christiana Care Health System’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery will be at the Sunday Breakfast Mission on Monday, Nov. 26, to ensure that some of Delaware’s homeless people have warm socks, new shoes, free foot exams and access to foot care.

“Feet are a big concern when it comes to the homeless and their health,” said Rev. Tom Layman, executive director of Sunday Breakfast Mission, a homeless services provider in Wilmington. “They are walking around a lot, wearing whatever they can find to cover their feet. Also, a disproportionate number of homeless suffer from diseases like diabetes, which affect blood flow to extremities.”

This is the second annual Heart to Soles event at the Sunday Breakfast Mission. Last year, about 50 people received the foot exams, shoes and socks.

“We will do physical exams and expect to see issues ranging from exposure to cold and wet to other chronic problems,” said Paul Kupcha, M.D., an orthopaedic surgeon and section chief with Christiana Care.

Dr. Kupcha, the local coordinator of the national Hearts to Soles event, has been volunteering with Pittsburgh-based Heart to Soles (www.heartstosoles.com) for five years and said proper footwear is an essential part of both foot care and overall health. He is providing supplies from his practice and expects to be joined at the Mission by other Christiana Care volunteers, including nurses, orthotists and surgeons.

“People were overjoyed last year when Hearts to Soles came,” Rev. Layman said. “Some people knew they had issues with their feet, but didn’t pay attention to them. When they received care as well as shoes and socks that fit, that seemingly little thing was a huge deal to them.”

For this year’s event, Guess?, Inc. is providing 60 pairs of new shoes through the Heart to Soles organization while Independence Orthotics is providing 50 pairs of specialty shoes for people with advanced diabetic foot needs.

For information on the Sunday Breakfast Mission – including ways to help – visit www.sundaybreakfastmission.org.

For more information about Christiana Care, visit www.christianacare.org/whoweare.