IRON MOUNTAIN – CCI Systems employees participated in an athletic shoe fund-raiser to benefit local children.

When Debbie McKinzie, founder of Heart and Soles of 906, contacted CCI regarding a donation for the Zombie Fun Run, “We were immediately off and running,” said Patter Kelly, CCI senior executive assistant and fund-raising organizer.

Each year CCI employees choose names from the Salvation Army giving tree to buy Christmas gifts for local area children. McKinzie was amazed to hear how generous CCI employees were with the Angle tree and was thrilled when CCI offered to help by collecting shoes and socks for her charity.

“I was happy to help out with this event, it is always a pleasure to get involved with special programs that benefit our community,” said Kelly.

To keep with the zombie theme of the charities major fund-raiser, the Zombie Fun Run, McKinzie thought instead of a giving tree to create a giving zombie containing the shoe sizes of area children in need. Employees chose as many tags as they wanted and purchased tennis shoes related to that specific child’s shoe size.

CCI employees were happy to help, and in total collected more than 33 pairs of children’s shoes, socks and monetary donations to contribute to the mission of Heart and Soles of 906.

CCI Systems is the nation’s premier start-to-finish solutions provider of communication network services. With 60 years of experience engineering, constructing, integrating, and operating complex networks, CCI Systems is able to deliver flexible, custom solutions for all network platforms. For more information visit, www.ccisystems.com.

Heart and Soles of 906 was started in 2013 by Debbie Mckinzie when, through conversations with teachers, doctors, and police officers, she realized that there are many needy children in our area who have never had properly-fitting shoes.

While our generous community has charitable avenues for assistance with food, housing, clothing and utilities, McKinzie learned that access to new shoes was generally unavailable for school children from families struggling to make ends meet. Her passion for running and her appreciation for shoes that fit well led her to begin fundraising to make new shoes, as well as new socks, available for such children.

Heart and Soles major fund-raiser, thus far, has been the Zombie Fun Run which has raised thousands of dollars for this purpose.

Aiding in this endeavor, local stores have frequently offered discounts on the purchases made and there are volunteers who often help with the distribution of these items to the identified children.