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NATCHEZ — Devin Hence and his best friend Desmond McGuire grew up in Holiday Apartments and know the people who live there.

Hence said he also knows that many families struggle and rarely do their children ever receive nice things like new shoes. Many run around in bare feet.

“I’m from Holiday Apartments. I understand hard times,” Hence said. “There’s a lot of less fortunate people from Holiday Apartments.”

Hence said he and his friend decided to do something about that.

Hence’s mother and another friend Stephen Jefferson with Durham School Services helped him borrow a bus to take 27 children from the neighborhood to the mall on Thursday, July 25.

All the children tried on and received a new pair of shoes for school. There was no fundraising involved. The expense was paid for by him, Hence said.

“Seeing the smiles on the children’s faces — their happiness — It’s priceless. That’s why we do this and continue doing this, just to see kids happy. No one did that when we were younger,” he said.

Hence said he moved to Baton Rouge and went to work immediately out of high school. He now has a career as a riverboat captain.

But he returns to Natchez on holidays and uses the opportunity to help out the neighborhood he grew up in.

“I do Christmas giveaways and have been doing that since 2020. This year, we decided to do school shoes,” he said. “Me and my best friend Desmond McGuire started this — me and him. We’ll shop at the Walmart in Vidalia or Baton Rouge or wherever we’re at and pick up gifts to give away at the apartments. We get a flyer made and set the date.”

This year, he was able to reach out to families through social media and word of mouth to get the children to the mall.

Though this was the first time they went shopping for shoes, Hence said he still plans to do a toy giveaway this Christmas.