LANSING, Mich. (WILX) -A small warehouse in Lansing houses more than 5,000 pairs of shoes, all destined for people in need across Michigan.

Footprints of Michigan, founded by Geronimo Lerma in 2013, has grown from a simple idea sparked by seeing a young man’s badly worn shoes to a nonprofit that distributed more than 20,000 pairs of footwear last year.

“It was really duct taped, tattered, torn, so the idea came in my head, you know, why isn’t there an organization just with footwear?” Lerma said.

The organization started small in the attic of Lerma’s parents’ house in Lansing.

“We just used the upstairs to bring the shoes in, we’d get them from friends and family, and it grew from there,” Lerma said.

Now operating from a 1,000-square-foot warehouse, Footprints of Michigan has increase

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