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Middle school classroom in northern Michigan displays the shoes of famous people

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

What do Oprah Winfrey, Tony Hawk and Dolly Parton all have in common? Well, besides being famous, they all have a pair of shoes on display in a middle school classroom in northern Michigan. A teacher uses that fancy footwear to inspire his students to do good in their community. Interlochen Public Radio's Michael Livingston reports.

MICHAEL LIVINGSTON, BYLINE: There's a long shelf in social studies teacher Matt Hamilton's classroom. It's lined with shoes of famous athletes and other celebrities.

MATT HAMILTON: On this wall over here, we have Aidan Hutchinson from the Detroit Lions. And the red really small, cute high heels belonged to Dolly Parton, then Barbara Streisand and Oprah Winfrey.

LIVINGSTON: Right below Jane Goodall's brown slip-ons are Shaquille O'Neal's bright yellow Size 22s. In total, Hamilton has collected nearly 200 star-powered shoes for the East Jordan Shoe Club. They're all donated, and he says he tries to acquire a new pair every month. It all started in 2008 after two high school students died in a single year. It was devastating for the small town of East Jordan. So the school district brought in a youth motivational speaker. Hamilton says there was a part of the presentation that stuck with him.

HAMILTON: He had a duffel bag, and he brought out these shoes.

LIVINGSTON: They all belonged to kids that struggled at home or in school.

HAMILTON: This girl here was struggling at home and then going to school and being made fun of. And then, you know, this boy here had a D1 scholarship, straight As, but yet his dad wasn't in his life, and he was cutting. And kids look like everything is perfect and fine and great, but on the inside, they're struggling.

LIVINGSTON: The motivational speaker said those kids were able to persevere and fulfill their dreams. At that moment, Hamilton saw the sneakers as a symbol. So he started collecting the shoes of people with amazing stories - people the kids would recognize.

HAMILTON: I don't want my kids to just dream when they're sleeping. I want my kids dreaming all day long, all the time. And I want my kids reaching and being the most successful people they can be.

LIVINGSTON: The collection became the East Jordan Shoe Club. It's open to all of the district's middle school students. And Seinna McLeod and Bristol Skop say they love watching the collection grow.

SEINNA MCLEOD: I actually can't even think of, like, my favorite shoe.

BRISTOL SKOP: Yeah, there's so many.

MCLEOD: There's - yeah, we just heard so many awesome stories. Like, I couldn't even, like, pick one if I tried.

LIVINGSTON: The club is not just about collecting shoes. Once they're in, students have to complete an annual community service project. In the last few years, they've raised $70,000 to buy solar panels for school buildings, helped enhance a memorial park in town and compiled a book of stories about local veterans. High schooler Rylan McVannel is now a mentor for the Shoe Club. He says those projects helped him realize anyone can make a difference.

RYLAN MCVANNEL: You could be doing some stuff like we do just on even a local level - just small things that you start doing every day that can affect your community.

LIVINGSTON: And the students are recognized, too, because they can donate a pair of their own shoes. They're kept on another shelf in Hamilton's classroom apart from the famous footwear. But Hamilton has placed a plaque over them that reads hall of fame.

HAMILTON: You know, these guys are my heroes. Some people call them future leaders, and they're not future leaders. They are current leaders.

LIVINGSTON: Hamilton says he'll keep growing his shoe collection as much as he can. And in his class, students can quite literally stand toe to toe with greatness.

For NPR News, I'm Michael Livingston in East Jordan, Michigan.

(SOUNDBITE OF RUIIJIKUN'S "OMEN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Michael Livingston