Reid, of Venice, FL, enrolled at the college in August and hopes to someday specialize in geriatric medicine. During his undergraduate study at the University of Florida, Reid worked in a soup kitchen for the homeless. So when he heard about Orlando\u2019s recent Veterans Affairs\u2019 Stand Downs, which provides food, shelter, clothing and health screenings to homeless veterans, he volunteered to participate.<\/p>\n
As Reid was handing out clean clothes, towels and soap, a homeless vet approached and asked where he might obtain shoes. \u201cHis shoes were ripped, torn, falling apart,\u201d he said. \u201cI got this feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a quiet location, the medical student approached the homeless vet and handled him his own shoes. \u201cHe kept saying, \u2018Are you sure? Are you sure?\u2019 and I said, \u2018Man, you need these. You need to cover your feet.\u2019 And as I looked at this vet who had served our country, I realized we were about the same age. Our lives had taken different paths, but that was the only difference between us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another volunteer at the event, Bessie Lamb, who works in Orange County\u2019s Drug Court, sent an e-mail to VA representatives talking about Reid\u2019s contribution.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we performed our duties in the shower area, one veteran came through whose shoes were literally falling off of his feet,\u201d Lamb wrote. \u201cOne of the volunteers, Reid Green, a medical student at UCF, without hesitation took off his shoes and gave them to the homeless veteran.\u00a0 Reid says it was the least he could do because he felt the veteran \u201cneeded them more.\u201d\u00a0 For the next two hours Reid stood on the damp asphalt in socks without a word of complaint.\u00a0 If only there were more people in the world like Reid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later that night, Reid told his mother, Randi, about the experience. She teaches Pilates at a YMCA in Venice and immediately jumped on the bandwagon. She and other volunteers created fliers, set up collection barrels at the Y and urged people to donate shoes and socks. On Wednesday, Randi and Reid gathered at the UCF College of Medicine to organize 300 pairs of donated shoes and take them to the local VA office.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom is such a giving person, I knew exactly what she\u2019d do when she heard about the need,\u201d Reid said. \u201cNow this is something Mom and I are doing together. It\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reid, of Venice, FL, enrolled at the college in August and hopes to someday specialize in geriatric medicine. During his undergraduate study at the University of Florida, Reid worked in a soup kitchen for the homeless. So when he heard about Orlando\u2019s recent Veterans Affairs\u2019 Stand Downs, which provides food, shelter, clothing and health screenings to homeless veterans, he volunteered…","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":16857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[6,17],"tags":[979,5055],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-16856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-medicine","tag-college-of-medicine","tag-veterans"],"yoast_head":"\n