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25-year-old woman buys out Payless store to donate shoes to Nebraska flooding victims

PHOTO: Addy Tritt, 25, poses at the Payless store where she bought the store's remaining shoes.
Addy Tritt, 25, poses at the Payless store where she bought the store's remaining shoes.
Courtesy Addy Tritt
ByKatie Kindelan
April 03, 2019, 1:37 pm

Addy Tritt had an idea while browsing in a Payless shoe store that was closing and selling its remaining shoes for $1.

“I was just walking around and looking and I started grabbing handfuls of shoes thinking, ‘This would be great to donate and this, this and this,” Tritt, 25, told “Good Morning America.” “I’ve always made donations and it’s just something I’m always thinking about.”

Tritt, of Hays, Kansas, recently got her master’s degree and is preparing to start a new job in Oklahoma. She said she did not have the funds last week to buy the 204 shoes she had picked out so she began to negotiate with a manager at Payless, which is in the process of closing its stores and e-commerce site after filing for bankruptcy.

PHOTO: Addy Tritt, 25, poses at the Payless store where she bought the store's remaining shoes.
Addy Tritt, 25, poses at the Payless store where she bought the store's remaining shoes.
Courtesy Addy Tritt

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“The sales associate called her manager and I literally sat on the floor in Payless going back and forth between phone calls and emails trying to [negotiate] for these shoes,” she said. “I finally got them all for around $100.”

(MORE: This wheelchair ballroom dancer is breaking barriers)

Tritt did not have anyone in mind when she bought the shoes, but it dawned on her that she could donate them to people in Nebraska, which has been devastated recently by record-breaking river flooding.

PHOTO: Floodwaters near the Platte River in in Plattsmouth, Neb., south of Omaha, March 20, 2019.
Floodwaters near the Platte River in in Plattsmouth, Neb., south of Omaha, March 20, 2019.
DroneBase via AP

Tritt was connected through a Facebook post to a sorority at her alma mater, Fort Hays State University, that was organizing a local donation drive for Nebraska.

“We were all amazed,” Emily Bennigsdorf, president of the Sigma Alpha chapter at Fort Hays State, said of Tritt’s donation. “These families will have to build from the ground up so just being able to give them anything is a huge gift in itself.”

(MORE: Dad goes viral after video shows him belting 'Ave Maria' at Disney World)

Sigma Alpha sent their donations, including Tritt’s shoes, to a Future Farmers Association (FFA) chapter in Wilcox, Nebraska, according to Bennigsdorf.

PHOTO: Donations to flood victims from Sigma Alpha at Fort Hays State University are pictured here.
Donations to flood victims from Sigma Alpha at Fort Hays State University are pictured here.
Courtesy Emily Bennigsdorf

Tritt said she has not heard from the people who received her shoe donation, but she actually doesn’t want any thank you from them.

“I don’t want them to think about it or feel anything or find out who I am,” she said. “I just want them to have the right shoes on their feet.”

PHOTO:  Addy Tritt, 25, purchased dozens of shoes to donate to flood victims in Nebraska.
Addy Tritt, 25, purchased dozens of shoes to donate to flood victims in Nebraska.
Courtesy Addy Tritt

Tritt is also taken aback at the attention her donation has received. She said she often gathers items like backpacks and school supplies and animal supplies to donate locally.

“This is just part of being a human being,” she said of her generosity. “It brings me so much joy.”

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