After Ajón Crump bought herself a pair of Nike Air Zoom Winflo 5s, she bought her cousin a gift card toward a pair of shoes for her birthday. Her cousin is a nurse, and upon this gift request, Crump realized that nurses are in need of sneakers.
“And they all need good sneakers because they are walking every day,” Crump said.
Crump was left with excess cash when the Nintendo Switch she purchased online was sold out.
“That was when I said, ‘I have the money, and I want to get nurses sneakers, so here is my chance,’” she said.
With that money, she purchased five pairs of Nike Air Zoom Winflo 5s. The GoFundMe #NikesForNurses launched on April 15. Nurses requesting sneakers are instructed to send an email to the address provided on the page.
Crump formed a team in order to break up duties, become more organized, and deliver sneakers efficiently. All five members of the team are from Bay Shore. Crump is a senior at SUNY Old Westbury, and all five members are Bay Shore alumni.
“It really came down to what they were good at,” Crump said.
Lucille Bootman was the first to join the team alongside Crump.
“I saw that [Crump] was giving sneakers to nurses throughout the month, and I was so impressed and influenced by that,” Bootman said. “This whole time I have been thinking to myself, ‘I am not really doing anything. I wish that there was something I can do.’ And I could not figure out what that was. This is such a creative thing that is so real, and she just went with it.”
With her professional background being in communications and public relations, Bootman has brought the #NikesForNurses campaign to widely known media outlets. Through coverage, the amount in donations and the number of nurses requesting sneakers has grown.
Just two days after the launch, Crump’s campaign had supplied 20 pairs to 20 nurses, which marked the first established goal of $1,500 in total donations. As mere days went by, the campaign’s monetary goals were being reached. Less than one month after its launch, #NikesForNurses has raised over $13,000. As of Monday, May 11, 60 pairs have been delivered, 15 pairs were en route to nurses’ addresses, and 30 pairs were awaiting repackaging.
Crump said that requests from nurses are incoming from all over the country. Not only were two pairs sent to Canada, but a request had come in from Colombia in South America.
“We actually got the request in Spanish,” Crump said. “It is important to me for the people who are sending the request to know that nothing is really stopping us; there is no boundary here outside of how much money we are able to spend. As far as that goes, the language does not matter; if I cannot speak Spanish, I know someone who can and can translate it and be able to articulate what I am trying to say properly, even if it is putting them on a wait-list.”
Crump works in customer service. She said that a pertinent piece of her current job is involvement with other people.
“One of my favorite parts of my job is making life a little bit easier for people,” Crump said, making note of the parallel operating the GoFundMe.
Crump and her team’s next goal is to raise $15,000. With a rate of roughly $750 being raised every three days, that goal does not seem to be far off.
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