Feb. 14, 2024 (DENVER) – Steps2Walk®, an international humanitarian nonprofit organization that focuses on providing surgical solutions and training in under-served regions around the world, announced today the second year of its corporate and employee giving campaign, “Stepping Together.” Since its launch in 2022, the campaign has secured more than $4.9 million in funds or in-kind donations from partners such as Orthofix Medical. In 2024, the organization’s goal is to secure $5 million for the campaign.
Through employee fundraising, company matching, contests and other elements of the campaign, “Stepping Together” will help fund the organization’s newly announced Steps2Walk Global Institute, which will deliver education, training and mentorship opportunities for orthopedic surgeons specializing in treating foot and ankle deformities.
“We launched ‘Stepping Together’ in 2023 to provide a way for stakeholders within the orthopedic industry to come together and help us deliver on our mission to give the “gift of walking” to people around the world,” said Steps2Walk CEO Tom Ferro. “Our surgeons, and many times their families that join them, get so much out of the trips and volunteering their surgical and training skills; this is also a way for companies and their employees across the industry to experience the same incredible feeling of giving back and making an impact in someone’s life.”
Founded in 2000 by world-renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mark Myerson, Steps2Walk has performed surgeries on more than 1,700 people with severe foot and ankle deformities and trained hundreds of local surgeons across 24 countries, many of which have limited resources when it comes to orthopedic care.
“When we embark on our programs, we take a week to perform up to 20 surgeries on people who have traveled hundreds of miles or waited years to access treatment that we often take for granted in the United States,” said Myerson. “That’s why a critical part of our mission is to provide education and training to the local surgeons, so that they can both treat their patients after we leave as well as train the next generation. This campaign will help fund that training, so that more and more people can have access to the care they need.”
In December, Step2Walk announced a $4.7 million in-kind donation from Orthofix Medical, Inc., which included orthopedic foot and ankle implants and associated instrument sets that will be used in the upcoming missions. Later this year, the organization will announce additional donations and grants from innovative companies impassioned by the mission of Steps2Walk.
Steps2Walk recently returned from their first mission of the year in Sri Lanka and has 17 more planned throughout 2024.
“As a nonprofit that conducts our programs in countries where, many times, the healthcare resources are limited, we often rely on donations, volunteers and fundraising from the medical personnel in each host country,” said Ferro. “By expanding our reach to corporate and employee giving as well as in-kind donations through ‘Stepping Together,’ we can relieve some of that burden from the local hospitals that are already strained for resources.”
For more information on how your company can take part in the “Stepping Together” campaign, contact Tom Ferro at tomferro@steps2walk.org. Steps2Walk also accepts online donations, which can give the gift of walking to those who need it most and help fund critical training and education programs for regional orthopedic surgeons.