CHARLOTTE, N.C. (January 12, 2009) –  Queens University of Charlotte men's and women's basketball teams will be participating in Samaritan's Feet along with many other coaches across the nation on January 17, 2009. The Royals will be playing conference rival Pfeiffer University at the Grady Cole Center. Samaritan's Feet is a humanitarian non-profit relief organization dedicated to taking a life-changing message of hope and equipping the feet of impoverished children in the US and around the world with shoes.

IUPUI Head Basketball Coach Ron Hunter coached a game in his bare feet in January.  This was a huge success. He's going barefoot again on January 17th and is asking all of the coaches to do the same on that weekend or close to that weekend as possible in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, who's still the voice of the poor.

Head women's basketball coach Trudi Lacey had this to say about supporting the organization; "We all are connected as one, so when one of us is hurting it effects us all. We must each do our part so that hopefully we will come together and provide shoes for those who are in need of them".

There are 300 million children who go without shoes every day and walking their only mode of transportation. This motivated the start of Samaritans Feet. Samaritan's Feet, based in Charlotte, N.C., is a humanitarian relief organization that puts shoes on children's feet all around the world. Their goal is to provide 10 million pairs of shoes for 10 million impoverished people in 10 years.  To date, nearly one million pairs of shoes for children around the world have been collected. Samaritan's Feet, based in Charlotte, NC, is a humanitarian non-profit relief organization dedicated to taking a life-changing message of hope and equipping the feet of impoverished children in the US and around the world with shoes.

Head men's basketball coach Wes Long states; “The Samaritan's Feet ministry is one that strikes close to home for me. As my oldest brother and his wife were going through the process of adopting their daughters, Celia and Callie from Guatemala, they came back with so many incredible stories. One that struck a chord with me was the fact that the children in foster and orphanage care there treated their shoes as a most prized possession. The kids simply would not let you take shoes off of their feet, and we learned that this behavior was a result of many children not having shoes at all. My nieces have been in the United States for two years now, and they still don't let their sneakers out of their sight”.

Queens ask that people attending the game bring a cash donation or shoes to the game to be donated to Samaritan's Feet. The women's game is set to start at 5:30pm and the men's game will follow at 7:30pm.

For more information on Samaritan's Feet click here!