If you want to give back, but do not know where to start, it can be as simple as buying a pair of shoes.

TOMS, an American shoe company, did not start from the desire to make a profit. Instead, Blake Mycoskie began TOMS so every child in the world could have a pair of shoes.

Mycoskie started the company in Los Angeles, with a desire to “make life more comfortable”, as he says in the TOMS motto. Although Mycoskie actually started selling TOMS out of his apartment, his customers now buy them at stores like Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus or on the internet, according to the TOMS website.

For every pair of TOMS shoes purchased, Mycoskie gives a free pair of shoes to a child in need. He calls this his One for One challenge.

Mycoskie spoke to locals at Willow Creek Church in Barrington, Illinois, on August 28, where Jaime Koehler, senior, learned more about the company that helps her give back to children in need.

“He wanted to try to turn it into a business, but didn’t want a nonprofit organization. If he started a nonprofit, he would have had to use all the money he had and raise a lot of money before he could actually start,” Koehler said. “Instead, he turned it into a for-profit organization with his One for One idea.”

Mycoskie traveled to Argentina in 2006 and met children without any shoes to protect their feet. Less than a year later, Mycoskie returned to Argentina with 10,000 pairs of shoes, all purchased by TOMS customers, according to the TOMS website.

When Mycoskie returned to Argentina, he says that one woman’s story really inspired him to make the business into a large organization.

“This woman told [Mycoskie] a story about how the shoes helped her family so much. They needed shoes to go to school, and before [Mycoskie] brought them shoes, her children would have to share one pair of shoes. Only one of her children would be able to go to school every day, but with their TOMS, her kids all made it to school on a daily basis,” Koehler said. “This story made him want to sell his other company and use his money to develop TOMS. They are based in 20 different countries now, and in September 2010 they hit their one millionth pair.”

Other supplies are also necessary around the world, but shoes may be more important to world than one thinks. The TOMS website, along with Mycoskie, stresses that without shoes, children are more susceptible to soil-transmitted diseases, cuts, and bruises. In addition, many children are required to wear shoes to school. Without shoes, they would not even be getting the education they deserve, similar to the Argentinian woman’s story.

Mary Erskine, sophomore, loves her three pairs of TOMS. Erskine admires the idea of the company and the ease of helping people in need.

“I think it is a really cool idea because we are so fortunate here. To us, buying shoes is not something out of the ordinary, but for millions of others it is nowhere as easy,” Erskine said. “So, it’s really cool that TOMS will give shoes to someone in need every time we purchase our own shoes.”

Not only is the idea inspirational to Erskine and Koehler, they both appreciate the comfort and ease of TOMS.

“I probably wear them two or three times a week to school because they go so great with casual outfits and are comfortable to take on and off,” Erskine said.

Now that TOMS shoes are popular, Mycoskie is launching a new line of sunglasses. According to Koehler, for every pair of TOMS sunglasses sold, the company helps a person with serious eye problems.

“He chose sunglasses because there are so many people, young and old, with cataracts and other severe eye problems. Plenty of people can’t afford prescription eyeglasses,” Koehler said. “Children who go to school cannot get the whole experience because they can’t afford glasses.”

Since Mycoskie knows that people need much more than sunglasses, the profits from selling TOMS sunglasses go to eye surgeries, prescription glasses, and more.

“[Mycoskie] told us about a woman who had eye surgery thanks to TOMS sunglasses. She was in her late twenties and already had cataracts,” Koehler said. “After the surgery, her vision wasn’t blurry anymore. When she woke up, she started crying because it was the first time she saw her child.”

Shoes and sunglasses are only a stepping stone for Mycoskie, as he hopes that his story and the TOMS One for One campaign will inspire others to, signaling the title of his new book, “Start Something that Matters.”