epkicks Fund

A Fund of

Our Mission:
"Engaging our community to inspire our children and youth to believe in their future, one step at a time."

Our Story:
Our founder, Mr. Ken Benckwitz, and myself, Sebastian Rumler, are shoe fanatics—Mr. Nike and Mr. Adidas. We share a passion for shoes, athletic shoes to be exact.

One day back in 2018, Ken came to me and said: "I want to do something in our community. I want to give back and share my passion for shoes, do something good with it. I just want some kids to get some shoes."

What began as something that sounded fun and exciting quickly turned into a serious passion for both of us. We started involving our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors in the effort. In November 2018, we launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to get kids new shoes. Our goal was to raise $500 for my birthday—yet we raised $1,200 and were able to provide 35 homeless 1st and 2nd graders in the SISD school district with brand-new Adidas sneakers.

We didn’t want to stop there, so that day, epkicks was born.

After that campaign, conversations with school districts, orphanages, and other institutions opened our eyes to just how great the need for shoes in our community really is. We decided to keep going, setting a goal to provide 200 or more kids with a pair of shoes.

On Saturday, March 30, 2019, we held our first inaugural event—a 5k race and 1-mile fun walk. Partnering with Up & Running, we presented our first-ever Run for Shoes. Almost 600 runners and walkers signed up, breaking a record for a single race event at that Up & Running location. With the help of friends, co-workers, and local sponsors, we raised enough funds to make real progress toward our goal.

From there, we began looking within our community to determine where our donations could make the most impact. After research, we partnered with SISD’s H.A.N.D.S (Helping the Academic Needs of Displaced Students) program, which supports children without a fixed, regular, or adequate residence.

To date, epkicks has donated 200 pairs of brand-new shoes to the H.A.N.D.S program.