While working in the lobby waiting for her daughter’s physical therapy sessions to end Bellevue mom Marlene Thies listened to other parents’ struggles.
Her daughter Madison Thies was diagnosed with cerebral palsy just shy of age 2. Because of the diagnoses she has spent much of her childhood at the Perlman Center located at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The center provides therapy to children that have cerebral palsy before they enter kindergarten. Listening to other parents, Marlene Thies started concocting a plan for Mad Kicks—a non-profit that gives free shoes and socks to patients at the Perlman Center.
While Marlene Thies sat and worked, she said she didn’t intentionally listen to people’s stories but noticed when parents would come in and wait without their computer, probably not working to attend to their child.
“When I found out she had cerebral palsy, the last thing I wanted to worry about was getting shoes for her,” Marlene Thies said. “I started to remember that they don’t really have a store for it.”
The options for parents are limited, having to search sites like Amazon for shoes and doing so without a physical therapist’s advice. The shoes that people with cerebral palsy wear tend to be wider than regular shoes to fit over leg braces. They also tend to have things like Velcro or a zipper for ease of taking them on and off.
Before the non-profit was born, the Thies family started by donating 10 pairs of shoes to the Perlman Center. Marlene Thies and her husband Steve then started looking into how to make their idea a non-profit coining the name after their daughter Madison.
Since its inception almost four years ago, Mad Kicks has given over 1,000 pairs of shoes and socks to the kids at the Perlman Center. It has also opened two Mad Kicks stores, one at the Perlman Center’s main campus and the other in Green Township in Hamilton County. Marlene Thies is also currently working to get a third store open in Crestview Hills.
“It’s special to the kids because it’s for free, and usually those kinds of shoes are really, really expensive, and some people might not be able to buy them, so they go to Mad Kicks, and it’s for free, and there’s all kind of different shoes,” Madison’s sister Ava Thies told LINK nky.
Mad Kicks sources a lot of its inventory from Bill Footwear. One of the company’s co-founder Billy Price gives Mad Kicks a discount on their shoes. Marlene Thies said the Billy Shoes give kids options for fun designs like they would get shopping at a store. Mad Kicks also buys shoes from New Balance.
“We’ve got a lot of good feedback on these [Billy Footwear shoes] too, because it’s easier for the kids to put them on themselves,” Steve Thies said. “So, they don’t really tie. They just look like they tie and they zip right up and they feel like they’re wearing real shoes.”
Marlene Thies said the shoes aren’t just for the kids but also the parents and caregivers.
“If someone had handed me a pair of shoes during that time [Madision’s diagnosis], I would been like, ‘Oh my gosh this is the best,’” she said. “It gives me cold chills just thinking about it, how I wouldn’t have to worry about buying all these shoes on Amazon and are they fitted right?”
Why is proper footwear so important for children with cerebral palsy?
Some kids use a walker and/or crutches and they require a good pair of shoes to fit over their leg braces. Madison Thies wears a size 12 shoe but to fit over her leg brace she requires a 13. She also must wear an extra wide shoe because a regular would not fit.
“If it’s not the right one it’s going to hurt her feet,” Marlene Thies said. “When you’re this little, she’s not going to tell me that she’s really in pain. She’s just going to not want to walk. So, you have to have a good pair of shoes.”
Children in wheelchairs might wear leg braces to stretch their legs, and even if they are not walking in their shoes, they still need to fit comfortably. Some children are also nonverbal and can’t share if they are uncomfortable.
Marlene Thies said kids also just want a cool pair of shoes so they can be just like their siblings or friends wearing fun designs.
“I like Mad Kicks because when you’re born with cerebral palsy the people think they’re going to be different and everything, and they’re going to have weird shoes and weird socks but we try to get them normal shoes, and then they feel like everyone else,” Madison’s brother Robbie Thies told LINK nky.
Children also receive new, bigger, leg braces every four to five months. Oftentimes that requires a new pair of shoes and at around $45-$70 a pop for Billy Footwear’s kids shoes the expense can add up.
Mad Kicks offers something called “financial distress” where they give extra donations for kids. This could be a gift card to Target for kids clothing or a gas card. Marlene Thies said social workers have told her families will cancel their appointments because they don’t have enough gas to get there. Mad Kicks will also give those families shoes in the next size up for their child as well.
“I try to be humble about it,” Marlene Thies said. “I don’t see it as like, I’m this great person for doing this but I feel like this is why I have Madison. This is why God put me here and he gave me her because he knew that I would start Mad Kicks.”
Marlene Thies said she tries to post photos of Madison on the Mad Kicks Facebook to show her milestones and the activities she’s involved in.
She attends horse therapy at Milestones, where she rides her horse, Henri, “CB Moves” at Cincinnati Ballet, one of the newest members of the Kentucky Royal Elite Competition Cheerabilites Squad, swim lessons with the Cincinnati Marlins, and started the ukelele. She also goes to school at St. Therese School.
Madison Thies said cheerleading is her favorite activity because she gets to play games, and she is in the flyer position. Madison Thies said her favorite part about Mad Kicks is helping her mom take donations, tear tickets during fundraisers, and be the face of Mad Kicks.
Anyone looking to support Mad Kicks can follow its Facebook page, where fundraisers are posted. They also accept donations, which can be claimed on taxes because they are a 501©(3) non-profit.
“I’m lucky because I know why God put me here,” Marlene Thies said. “A lot of people don’t find out what their purpose is, but I know what my purpose is, and I can live it for a long time.”
