But it didn’t end there. Not even close.
When good things happen here at Zappos, we share our stories with our coworkers. And no sooner did I share the story of Susan, McKendree, and Luis with a few other members of my Zappos family that the ideas started flying.
“Let’s do something really special for McKendree. She must be so heartbroken.”
“Maybe we could bring her and her family out here to Vegas.”
“Yeah! A vacation.”
“Maybe she could bring a few friends. Like, those friends from St. Jude who knew Luis. The ones who all wore the red shoes.”
“Yes! And what if we threw them a party? A celebration of life. A celebration of Luis!”
Suddenly multiple departments within our company were collaborating on putting together a trip of a lifetime for McKendree and her friends and family. When all of the pieces were in place, we sent them a video saying, “Guess what? You’re coming to Vegas!”
McKendree and her mom couldn’t understand why we were being so nice and doing so much for them.
Our answer was—and always is—“Why not?” McKendree’s story touched us, and we wanted to honor that. To honor her. To honor Luis. To honor Susan for everything she’d done to support her daughter. They all deserved some fun, didn’t they? Plus, McKendree was graduating high school and still fighting her own battle with cancer. We thought she deserved a breather.
Why not?
“They made us feel like the most special people in the whole world,” McKendree recalls of her trip to Vegas. (McKendree is in college now. She managed to get herself a full scholarship while undergoing treatment for cancer, so she’s pretty inspiring all by herself!) “I’d never been to Vegas or anything close, and everything was thought out for us, every detail. We had so much fun. I don’t think I’d smiled and laughed that much for as long as I can remember.”
I’ll never forget the moment McKendree and Susan came walking into the office and we met face-to-face for the very first time. I had watched a video of them that St. Jude had posted, so I already knew what they looked like. But what I wasn’t prepared for was the flood of emotion. As I put my arms around these two people whom I had come to know on the phone, I started crying. It was such a moment for all three of us. A moment of pure joy. They started crying, too! I still tear up thinking about it.
My colleagues went all out for the party that night. We picked up McKendree and her friends in a limo, and we laid out a red carpet, and a large number of people from our staff stayed late just to set it all up and experience this celebration with them—including our CEO, Tony Hsieh. He found the whole thing so moving that he wound up sticking around all night. He was one of the last people to leave.
“The whole night was magic,” McKendree says. “The people at Zappos put so much preparation into it, and they projected all of my favorite pictures of Luis and me together on one of the walls. They had a mariachi band, and some the staff did choreographed dances, and this amazing local singer played a bunch of music that was so special to Luis and me, including our favorite song, “Live Forever,” by Drew Holcomb. A man named Miguel, who’s one of the artists at Zappos, gave me two red shoes that he’d painted—one with Luis’s face on it and the other with my face. I keep them in a shadow box in my room.
“It was just beyond anything I’d ever imagined happening to me in my whole life,” McKendree continues. “When I look back on it I’m like, ‘Did that really happen?’ I’ve never had anyone make me feel that special besides Luis. I hadn’t felt like that in a really long time. They somehow made me feel the way he would make me feel.”
It was emotional for me, too—for all of us who were there. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. Apparently Luis had a favorite saying that he used to quote all the time: “Where there is a pulse, there is a purpose.” More than one person mentioned it at the microphone over the course of that night. And as we were reminded of that saying over and over again during the party, many of us in that room felt more inspired than ever to try to live up to our own personal purpose.
“Where there is a pulse, there is a purpose.”
When McKendree’s family got home to Tennessee, the celebration still wasn’t over. Word of what happened spread everywhere. People started talking about it on social media. Someone started a hashtag using the phrase “Operation Red Shoes.”
It was remarkable. What started out in sadness was evolving through this connection we’d made. By connecting and sharing our stories we were almost magically forming a whole new tribe of support for McKendree.
“Before long,” Susan recalls, “we felt like we ought to do something for them in return, to show the folks at Zappos firsthand what Luis and what other patients at St. Jude experience. We thought it would be so much fun to turn the tables, to fly Teri and the folks who instigated the trip and the party out to Memphis. McKendree even talked about using her Make-a-Wish to fund that trip—but she didn’t have to. Once the idea got back to St. Jude, some friends there stepped up and helped fund the trip themselves.”
What can I say? The trip to Memphis was completely unexpected and completely amazing. We spent time at the hospital having a painting party with some of the kids. Susan and McKendree took us to Graceland and down to Beale Street. We felt so honored and so touched that this family and that hospital would reciprocate in that way.
Spending time together in Las Vegas and Tennessee led to something more: Susan and I had a chance to talk, a lot, and to this day Susan and I talk and text and email and keep in touch on a regular basis. We developed a friendship that I’m pretty sure will last the rest of our lives.
In the fall of 2015, McKendree, along with her sister, Bizzy, and Luis’s friends Allie and Hailey, launched a nonprofit in Luis’s memory: Operation Red Shoes (ORS). It’s a charity designed specifically to help families with teens and kids with their needs as they go through cancer treatments. A bunch of people here at Zappos made personal donations to help get it started.
“We’ve got all kinds of support, including some celebrity supporters,” Susan tells me. “David Mickey Evans, writer and director of The Sandlot (1993), gave ORS the first large donation. I really do think this is going to turn into a major nonprofit that will help with some of the unique situations teens who are battling this disease find themselves in. Our goal is that it will keep growing and continue doing good work in Luis’s honor long after all of us are gone.”
And that’s still not all! Another sort of legacy project got started around the same time, too. Luis had a dog, a Siberian Husky named Luna, that he had left to McKendree.
“At first I didn’t know what to do with her,” she says. “Luna didn’t even really like me. She was so protective of Luis that she used to wedge herself between the two of us on his couch! But she likes me now. We’re friends. And we decided to breed her, to help spread even more of Luis’s joy to others. Three of the puppies actually went into training to be service dogs for children with cancer.”
One of the puppies wound up going to Tia Zuniga, a Zappos team member who helped make Operation Red Shoes happen. She brings that dog into the office now just to hang out with her team and brighten all of their days.
Like I said earlier: Opening your heart changes everything. And what Zappos has given to me and to all of us who work here is proof that business can have a heart, too. And when that heart is open, truly open, amazing things unfold.
Christa Foley
Head of Brand Vision, Head of Talent Acquisition, and Head of External Culture Training