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It was all hands on feet Friday afternoon at Charles H. Hulse Public School as an Ottawa mother and father handed out brand new boots to 50 students in memory of their son, Zaher “Zack” Noureddine, who was killed in Toronto last year.

Hassan Noureddine and his wife Magda Khatib were at the Alta Vista elementary school to donate the shoes in the name of Zack, who was attacked and killed on Dec. 30, 2015 after what Toronto police called a “brazen robbery.”

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“My son loved shoes,” Khatib said, recalling a time when Zack told her he wanted to donate some of his clothing and shoes to the Salvation Army. “He always wanted to do something for the kids.”

Following their son’s death, Noureddine and Khatib created the Zack Noureddine Foundation in an effort to “promote arts entrepreneurship as a key mechanism to avert violence among youth.”

Photo by David Kawai / Ottawa Citizen

Through various fundraising initiatives this year, the family has been able to donate boots to both Hawthorne and Charles H. Hulse public schools, as well as $1,000 in gift cards to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School in Oshawa.In October, the foundation hosted a benefit concert called “Zackfest,” which featured a number of local and emerging musicians from the Ottawa area.