Laura Jablonover is a first-year student-athlete on the Emory Women's Track and Field team. In a short time, she has made a huge impact on the Emory community through her organization, Project Happy Feet.

What is Project Happy Feet?

Project Happy Feet is a community organization aiming to make sports equipment accessible by donating athletic equipment and shoes to schools in low-income areas. Laura founded Project Happy Feet in July of 2023 when she attended a summer camp called PEN America, hosted in a title one school in DC. After connecting with the security guards, she learned that the school had many sports teams and a field, but a lack of shoes and equipment. Jablonover partnered with a separate organization and started a shoe drive so that she could recycle shoes, send it to the company, receive money, and then send that to title-one schools. She went door to door handing out flyers with information about PHF and gained over 100 pairs of shoes and equipment quickly! Jablonover quickly realized that she wanted to have a more direct impact, so she created a team and they made donation boxes and put them up in schools in our county, so that they could collect donations and send them directly to the schools. 

Now, Project Happy Feet has expanded and evolved into a nationwide organization that has successfully received and donated over 2,500 pairs of athletic equipment and shoes in a short period since its founding. The "Happy Feet" donation boxes are set up in over 20 locations in Maryland, as well as across 13 states. The team is working to donate shoes and sports equipment to all who could benefit to move closer to completely equal access to athletics. Through generous donations from Emory student-athletes, faculty, staff, and community members, Project Happy Feet was able to donate 115 pairs of shoes to Lakeside High School in Atlanta, Georgia last week.

Goals for Project Happy Feet:

Some short-term goals include working towards becoming a non-profit and collecting more shoes to reach a total of 3,000 pairs of shoes and equipment donated. Some long-term goals include growing nationally so that they can have more branches where students can collect and donate shoes, hopefully purchasing a warehouse where teachers and coaches from title-one schools can come and take what they need for their students and athletes. Project Happy Feet recently just donated over 45 pairs of shoes and equipment, and $300 to the BALIANGAO SCHOOL OF FISHERIES in the Philippines and hope to continue donating across the world. 

How to get Involved:

The best way to support Project Happy Feet is by following on Instagram @project.happyfeet and specifically @project.happyfeetga, to stay up to date with events and donations here at Emory. To get involved with PHF, anyone can apply to be part of the team on their website projecthappyfeet.com, as well as continue donating in the WoodPec! They are always looking for volunteers to help clean and sort donations before donating them to schools!