The Skechers Foundation presented checks totaling $1.4 million from its October Pier to Pier Friendship Walk to the nonprofit Friendship Foundation (formerly the Friendship Circle) and local education foundations at an event on Mar. 10 at the Shade Hotel.
It’s the most the nonprofit branch of the company has raised since it started the walk.
“In 2009 when we set out, I was skeptical because Skechers is a big company,” said Skechers President Michael Greenberg. “I wasn’t sure anyone was going to show up.”
Greenberg recounted his experience as a fourth grader helping fellow students with special needs, whom the Friendship Foundation serves.
“It changed my life forever,” said Greenberg. “These children are no different that you and I. They deserve friendships.”
Greenberg said that the South Bay “might be one of the only communities in the country where we have children interact with children with special needs.”
Rabbi Yossi Mintz of the Foundation Circle, who first convinced Greenberg to raise money for the charity, contrasted the inclusiveness with the tenor of the Republican presidential debate, which aired that evening.
“Especially now, we have such a divisive world — turn on the TV tonight—and yet the community right here in our backyard is bringing together people of all religions, all segments of the population, for a common cause,” said Mintz. ER
