ALMA, Arkansas (NBC) — Carrie Jernigan has always been a bargain shopper.
“We were buying a bunch of shoes because when we walked in, they had store closing signs,” she said.
The mother of three was browsing the soon to be closed Payless Shoe Store, scooping up last-minute summer deals, when her daughter, Harper, 9, wondered if they might pick up an extra pair for a classmate.
“I knew he likes Avengers, so I saw some Avengers shoes and I said, ‘Hey, mom. Can we get these shoes for one of my friends?'”
For the lawyer and local school board president in Alma, Arkansas, the answer was easy.
“So I just jokingly looked at the clerk, I said, ‘How much for the rest of the shoes in here?’ Just joking,” Carrie said.
Joking aside, she got a call a few hours later — the entire stock of that store was hers if she wanted it.
And she did, leaving with 1,500 pairs that day.
“We’re going to give them away on the 10th at the middle school,” Harper said.
In recent weeks, more donations have come in — school supplies, cash — and Carrie and her three children are collecting even more shoes ahead of August 10, which is when they are planning a big back to school giveaway.
The whole town is invited.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Carrie said. “If it continues to grow and just, it makes you do one little thing for that student fixin’ to go back to school, then it matters to that one kid.”
For Carrie and her children, there’s only one motto:
“Be nice, be kind,” Harper said.