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Pair of boots leads Woodward worker to longer journey with Work Boot Ministry in
Rockford





PAIR OF BOOTS LEADS WOODWARD WORKER TO LONGER JOURNEY WITH WORK BOOT MINISTRY IN
ROCKFORD

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Alex Gary  |  Special to the Rockford Register Star


ROCKFORD — For Darnel Royal of Woodward Inc., a conversation over a pair of
ill-fitting work boots led him to what has become a nearly three-year mission to
make sure no one misses a chance at a job because they can’t afford the right
shoes.



“At Woodward, they give us (steel-toed) work boots every year and one of my
co-workers had some that hurt his feet,” said Royal, a 1993 Auburn High School
graduate who has been an aerospace technician at Woodward for nearly 23 years.
“He said to me, ‘you’ve got a big following (on Facebook), see if anyone needs
some boots.”

Royal would fit the definition of social media influencer, at least locally. The
6-4 former Auburn Knights basketball “small” forward began posting rap videos on
Facebook about his wife 10 years ago. People noticed and then business owners
began asking him to post raps about their businesses. Now, he raps about
positivity and has 27,000 followers.



“I took the boots home, made a post, then took a two-hour nap, and when I woke
up I had 53 messages,” Royal said. He gave those boots to the first person who
called, but the sheer need stirred a new calling.



“So many places, you can’t start working until you have (steel-toed) work boots
and lots of times guys have been out of work awhile and can’t afford them,”
Royal said. The price of steel-toed boots can range as low as $25 to more than
$100, but many manufacturing places have strict rules on the quality.



That conversation was in March 2018. Royal sent a message to the local Woodward
workforce asking for more boots and another 30 were donated right away.

“I probably have 50 pairs at my desk right now and I’ve got an inventory at my
house,” Royal said. “When I get low, I send out another message and more show
up. Woodward has really gotten behind this.”

The effort picked up momentum in June 2019 when local videographer Pablo Korona
learned about what Royal was doing and shot a five-minute video on Work Boot
Ministry for his Our City, Our Story series.




“After that, man, I’ve been getting boots from all over the country,” he said.
“I had a pair mailed to me from Arizona. I’ll come home and there’ll be boots on
my porch.”

The co-worker who had the badly fitting boots, Jeremy Schmidt, helps him at
Woodward’s Loves Park campus and Will Paul helps coordinate the effort at the
Rock Cut campus. Woodward employs about 1,570 people at the two locations.

As of Jan. 20, Royal, Smith and Paul had collected and given away 567 pairs of
boots to needy workers and Royal had three drop offs scheduled for the weekend.
The effort has grown to the point that Royal has started the legal process to
create an official not-for-profit organization and has started taking monetary
donations to help with other needs of the homeless.

“Sometimes I’d get a message and a guy needs a size 13 and I’m out,” Royal said.
“My wife and I, we’d go buy them because we don’t turn anyone down.”




Royal stressed that the effort is not about money or recognition, he just wants
to make sure everyone has an even chance to improve their situation.

“There was one guy, he needed some boots and we just couldn’t hook up,” Royal
said. “Finally, he called and said he could meet at Walmart in an hour. So I’m
sitting there with my son, and he’s 30 minutes late, and I’m thinking maybe this
is a scam.

“Finally, I see this guy walking across the parking lot,” Royal said. “Turns out
he walked 3 ½ miles to get those boots. I put my son in the back seat and we
drove him home and, man, we were talking and laughing the whole way.

“That’s what this is about.”

Alex Gary is a freelance correspondent


ONLINE | WORK BOOT MINISTRY
 

To learn more about Work Boot Ministry, visit its Facebook page at
facebook.com/groups/436111037584955.


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