Denise Campbell had heard of giving the shirt off one’s back, but not giving the shoes off one’s feet.

Until Tuesday.

Campbell was riding the bus in downtown Winnipeg when her driver pulled over suddenly.

“He yells, ‘Hey, buddy!’ and starts chatting with this guy on the sidewalk,” she said. The young man, in dreadlocks and tattered clothes, had been walking barefoot.

The driver knelt down, took his shoes off and handed them to the man.

“The guy with no shoes, he’s looking at them with the same stunned look I had on my face,” she said. “Like, ‘what just happened?’ ”

The driver stepped back on the bus without saying a word. When someone asked him why he had done it, he had a simple answer.

“He just said, ‘He had no shoes. I had to do something,’” Campbell recalled.

Passengers were visibly moved by the driver’s gesture, she said.

“I was sitting there with tears running down my face. I realized I had to share this story.”

Campbell, who works with charities at the Winnipeg Foundation, wrote an emotional post on a community news forum.

The story captivated media and Winnipeg residents. Social media users applauded the driver’s kindness and called for him to be publicly recognized.

Yet the modest driver has not come forward and Winnipeg Transit has not released his name.

“The driver’s good intentions and compassion have been acknowledged,” said transit director Dave Wardrop, but he did not say how.

Campbell described the driver as young, tall and dark-haired. She said she believes he prefers to remain anonymous.

“He doesn’t want it to be about him. He wants it to be paid forward, so everybody does something nice for someone else,” she said.

It is not known whether the barefoot man was homeless, but advocates hope the story draws attention to a growing need for shelters in the city.

Christina Maes Nino, of the Winnipeg Social Planning Council, said use of emergency shelters had risen 14 per cent since 2008.

“Winnipeg’s housing market has progressively gotten worse,” she said. “Rent is going up and social assistance is not going up. It’s an obvious problem.”

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The weather has been brisk in Winnipeg, with a low of 2.5 degrees Tuesday, according to Environment Canada.

As for Campbell, she hopes the driver’s actions inspire others to commit their own random acts of kindness.

“I just want everybody to get on their bus tomorrow and smile at their bus driver,” she said. “Chances are they will smile back.”

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