Law Have Mercy!

How Nathan Thorton's Quiet Generosity Grew Into Hundreds Of New Shoes For Students w/ Chaz Roberts

• Chaz Roberts • Season 4 • Episode 77

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A small act of noticing changed everything. When Nate, then an eighth grader at Cecilia, saw classmates wearing worn-out shoes, he didn’t lecture or post; he built a system. With counselors discreetly gathering sizes, donations flowing from the community, and a commitment to anonymity, he helped deliver nearly 300 brand-new pairs to students across Acadiana. No spotlight, no names—just dignity and relief.

We dig into how that effort took shape and why it worked: simple processes, trusted adults, and partners who stepped in at scale. Nate credits his family and faith for the instinct to serve, and we trace how that mindset shows up in other arenas—literally. He walked into the Superdome, not the biggest guy on the field, and left with a state championship ring as a defensive back. Along the way he handled an injury, shifted sports, and set his sights on track again, proving that resilience is a skill you can carry from the locker room to life.

The episode also turns practical. A day inside our law office gave Nate a front-row seat to how work becomes meaningful: prioritizing under pressure, writing handwritten thank-you notes that actually move relationships, and using small systems to stay organized. We talk patience in a digital world, why assuming good intent saves energy, and how grace first—boundaries second—keeps doors open. Nate shares his next chapter, pursuing construction management at Western Kentucky, drawn to solving complex problems and, yes, the precision of demolition. If you care about youth leadership, community impact, and the soft skills that win in real life, you’ll feel this one. Subscribe, share with a friend who believes in quiet service, and leave a review with the one lesson you’ll act on this week.

You can watch most full episodes of Law Have Mercy on YouTube!

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This show is co-produced by Carter Simoneaux of AcadianaCasts Network, Chaz H. Roberts of Chaz Roberts Law and Kayli Guidry Bonin of Beau The Agency, and Laith Alferahin.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey guys, Chaz back again with another episode of Law Have Mercy. Today's episode is a special treat. I bring on my buddy, my my my good little friend, uh Nathan Thornton. He is goes by little Nate to me, but uh Nate is a special kid. He is a junior in high school at Cecilia, my alma mater. But the interesting thing about Nate is I met him in 2021. It was a week after I just finished the um New York Marathon. Nate was actually giving kids who couldn't afford shoes a new pair of shoes. And he would go around school and see what shoes, what kids were were quote unquote had busted shoes. Maybe couldn't afford some some new ones. And he would give them new shoes. I heard about the story and made local news. I saw that somebody from my old community was was doing such a special thing. I donated money. I met his mom, who is awesome, Charlene. And um I met his dad, his whole family, uh a mutual friend of mine, Alex Angel, at the time, heard about it. Her boyfriend at the time was Sam Bro from Politics. We hooked up with politics and they put on a huge shoe drive. And I found out today, I didn't even know this, that they got something like 250 pairs of shoes, 300, almost 300 pairs of shoes that they gave out to kids all across Acadiana. That's massive. That I mean, that's at 100 bucks a piece. That's a lot of lot of money that they were able to gather from donations, and politics really stepped up, donated all these shoes. And Nate and I have maintained our friendship all these years, and um he came to the office today to spend a day with with Uncle Chaz. Yeah, and we're gonna talk about that. So, Nate, without further ado, what's up, buddy?

SPEAKER_00:

What's up, Uncle Chaz?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I bet you didn't think you were piecasting today.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it was a surprise. Christmas gift.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Christmas gift. Um, talk about let's talk a little bit about the shoe deal. What inspired you in eighth grade? Because I know me in eighth grade, I was nowhere near having the wherewithal to give a charitable gift to my classmates. What inspired you to do that?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, um, my mom was on Facebook and she seen this story of a kid in, I think it was New Orleans. He was going to school and he seen they had a kid that had some pretty messed up shoes, and he had a bunch of like good shoes, Nike, Jordan, stuff like that. And he went home, talked to his mom, and asked if he could give one of his pairs of shoes to the kid, because he needed it. And she told him, Yeah, go ahead, bring it to him. And she like put it on Facebook and all that. My mama seen it and she showed it to me. I was like, Oh, that's cool. I would I would do something like that. That's something I would do. And she was like, Well, you know, you should just go around school, look. Somebody needs some shoes, we could maybe get some people to donate some money, and we could go get them shoes. I was like, Yeah, but I wouldn't want to do it like just once. Like, that's not good enough. Like, it's one time. I just no. So I went around school, talked to the counselor. She would look for kids or ask kids if they needed uh shoes. I would look at kids walking around school in the hallways, see their shoes. If they needed shoes, I would keep them in mind to the counselor, and she would get their sizes, and then we would write it down on a list, we'd get like 12 kids, and then we'd go get donations, um, and then we'd get the shoes, bring them to the counselor, and she would call them in her uh office and give them the shoes. But they didn't know who it came from. So I didn't sometimes I didn't even know who I was giving the shoes to, the ones that the counselor picked. I didn't know the kids or who the shoes were given to. I would try to look like in the hallway the next day, I was like, I seen these shoes before, but I didn't know who I was giving them to. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And y'all wanted to kind of keep it quiet because you didn't want to embarrass anyone.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I didn't want to call have names out and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. What do you think in your heart, like what do you think made you so charitable or so thoughtful like that?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you know, my mom, my dad, we stay at church. We go to church, we pray a lot. I think it's really all God, you know. I stay close to God, I pray all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

That's beautiful, man. And then um, what did you think when when I reached out and they said, well, Nate, man, they got this some some lawyer dude that's coming meet you at school. Uh, what was that about? Were you thinking anything?

SPEAKER_00:

I never I heard about you before, but I didn't like I didn't really know you. And he's like, You're a lawyer. I was like, lawyer. I'm gonna have my own lawyer now. So I would go around school. Your agent, bro. I'd go around school, like, oh, my lawyer's doing this, my lawyer's that. I got a lawyer, y'all don't got a lawyer. And I was bragging about you, stuff like that. It was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, man. I I really we hit it off right away. Yep. And uh I still, luckily, our my iPhone has a big memory, so I got all those pictures and we were looking through them today to see how much you grew since then, right? I look the same. Maybe I got a little more gray hair, but you look, you look, you've grown tremendously in that period of time. But um I had no idea that because after the politics event, because you and your mom pretty much managed it, I kind of stepped out. I said, Hey, I'm here for you. Whatever you need, if you need any donations, whatever, however, I can help. Yeah, but you took the ball and you just ran with it. Yep. And I had no idea. Where tell me some of the places that those shoes went.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, more than probably half of them really went to Northside. Uh, we went to JW Falk, Paul Brough, Bro Bridge Middle School, and obviously Cecilia.

SPEAKER_01:

Have you gotten any feedback from the counselors or the teachers or anyone about how it had impacted the kids?

SPEAKER_00:

Northside uh had told me that some kids they would tell me how grateful they were. They were surprised, like they didn't see it coming because they never had something like that happen before, and they were really grateful.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. That's uh that's so cool, man. I mean, you did as a kid what adults aren't able to pull off. And it was your spirit, and I cannot overstate this. Like your your parents are beautiful people, your brothers and your sisters. How many you have how many are y'all?

SPEAKER_00:

Two sisters, two brothers, older brother, older sister, younger brother, older.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, you're right in the middle. Yeah, freaking middle children, huh? Of course. Yeah, gotta find a way to come up. But um all great people. One of your brother dropped you off today to the office, and I was like, God, man, we're getting older. And uh little Nate's uh junior now, and so uh you're gonna be out the out of the house soon, man. Yeah before you know it. And um Politics made a really cool video of you. Uh, and it was what it was probably around Christmas time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was Christmas time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And um, we got to put that maybe in the show notes and find a link to the Instagram video. It's really cool. Y'all gotta check this out. Um, Nate is a is an athlete in his own right. And when he was, when I met him, he was cutting up the junior high football field as a running back and in track and field. He had the he has the record at junior high. I found out today for a uh long jump. And then Nate became a football player in high school. And Nate's not the biggest guy in the world. Is that fair?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm not the biggest guy.

SPEAKER_01:

He's not the biggest he played safety.

SPEAKER_00:

Safety.

SPEAKER_01:

And he played cornerback too. And guess what Nate did? Nate won a state championship in football. Yes, sir. How cool was that?

SPEAKER_00:

That was awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

Believe it or not, Lathe, right here, that's recording this podcast. It was his first football game ever. And he came to the Sicilia State Championship game, and he recorded, he's got better footage in his phone from the stands than probably some on the field because he's he's in the cameras and recording. And he said, Dude, I'm hooked. I love football. It was his first football game. He didn't know American football at all. He didn't know what a first down was, punting. And could he have picked a better football game?

SPEAKER_00:

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_01:

That was one of the best football games, high school football games ever. Definitely. What was your uh best experience that year winning a state championship?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, definitely. The first few seconds walking into the dome, looking up, seeing how big it was, all the people, all the fans there. It was it was a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

Did y'all get to go in the dome before the game at all? Or did uh like a day before anything, or the first time you stepped on the field?

SPEAKER_00:

That was the first time I stepped on the field.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. And now you're playing in a huge inside arena. Yes. And and it it probably felt like everyone in Sicily was in that stadium at the time. It was loud on the field. And um, I think your freshman year, y'all lost in a state championship game, but you probably you might have not dressed out as a freshman.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it wasn't a stand state game.

SPEAKER_01:

And then this past year you were junior and y'all lost in the quarterfinals, but had a great season. Yeah. You lost a lot of great players, but y'all still had a great season. Yes, sir. And then um what else what other sports are you into?

SPEAKER_00:

Um baseball, track. Uh I had torn my labrum, my sophomore season in baseball, so I won't be able to play that anymore. But I'm joining track this year after I haven't ran since eighth grade, but hopefully I'm looking to get back on that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, my friend Coach Logan, who I run with every Sunday, is gonna be very happy with that decision because he's uh the head track coach, and we run every single Sunday, and there's nobody that cares more about track than Coach Logan, and they'll tell you that. Yes. So you came to our office today. Yes, sir. We got you on a TikTok video, yeah. And um, check it out on Bug and the Boss. Let's just say that Nate goes airborne, and that's all I'm gonna tell you about that video. Did you have fun doing that?

SPEAKER_00:

I had real fun. I wish we had someone taller.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, 6'3 wasn't tall enough. All right, just check out the video. All right, just check it out. Um so his mom and I linked up recently, and I and I told his mom, I said, you know, Lil Nate's been on my heart lately, and I want to get him in uh to the office. And she said, I think that's a great idea because I think Nate misses me too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Because every time, every time I go to a football game in Sicilia, I make it a point to go talk to Lil Nate.

SPEAKER_00:

Take pictures and take pictures with Luke.

SPEAKER_01:

He's seen Luke since he's a baby, taking pictures, and um I just always keep in touch. And so uh, what did you think about your first day in the law office, man?

SPEAKER_00:

It was a lot, a lot of big words I never heard before. Um, hearing y'all talk about the cases and stuff. It's really cool work, but it's a lot. It's a lot, a lot of work, a lot of people you gotta deal with, be patient, you have to have patience.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. What did you think about when I when I walked in? Because you and I walked in about the same time. Yeah. And so I didn't get a chance to really get settled before Nate got in in the fire. What'd you think about me running around?

SPEAKER_00:

I walked in and your whole desk was filled with stuff. I thought you put it there. You walked in, all that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Nate said, I said, Nate, what do you think about that desk? He says a lot of stuff on that desk. I said, you know, I didn't put that there. He said, You didn't put that there? I said, No. That was, and in fact, I came yesterday on a Sunday and my desk was completely clear. Other people put this stuff on my desk. And he just saw me just shredding it, shredding it, shredding.

SPEAKER_00:

Writing letters.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. What'd you think about the thank you notes?

SPEAKER_00:

I think, you know, a lot of people, they would have a lot of notes to write or a lot of things to do. They get lazy, they copy and paste what they're writing. You sat there, thought about it, thought about the person you were writing to, wrote everything from your heart, and you wrote different things on each one.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I was it was uh when we're recording this, it's right before Christmas. So I was sending Christmas gifts to people, and I would write hand-written thank you notes for whatever they did throughout this season and giving them the gift. And and Nate was just sitting there watching. It's like he took note that it was special that I was writing individualized thank you notes. I want you to remember that the power of thank you notes. And what I tell you, I say I try to get about two to three a week out to people. Keep that, man. People who have made an impact in your life, coaches, people you play against, people you're with, people against, any adult that helps you through a situation that gives you the time of day. It could be you could go to a speed training with someone one time or Coach Kramer or whatever, you know, somebody you play, write them a thank you note. And they're always gonna remember that because you're one of a million that's gonna take the time to do that. Anything else that you learned today?

SPEAKER_00:

I learned somebody gives you something, first thing you do with it, take it to your car so you don't forget it.

SPEAKER_01:

That's an organizational hack. Yeah. Nate saw me, Bradley, and Kevin and Kaylee all disappear because it could be a can of popcorn that somebody gave us for Christmas or a check or something, and we would just disappear. And Nate's looking around, like, where are these people going? And it's like, no, we we're not, we didn't leave. We just went put in our car. Because if we don't put it in our car right now, we're gonna forget it here. And they was like, Okay, I got you. What else, Nate? What else you learn?

SPEAKER_00:

I learned that you always have to give people a chance to be positive in life. Don't just assume that they're everything's gonna be negative, they don't like you, or and things like that. You give them a chance to be positive, and then once they show that that's not what they're about, then you then you can tee it up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. And and Kevin made that point to Nate, and uh, that was Kevin's advice. He was like, you know, what we learn as lawyers, you can apply in your life in high school, is that you know, some always always look at the positive in someone. When someone comes to you, uh give them an opportunity to be nice. And give them an opportunity to be cool. And don't assume that just because they're on the other side or whatever, that they're not gonna be cool, or and and once they show that they're angry or an enemy or whatever, then you can be a little bit more aggressive. But give people an opportunity to be nice. Because as lawyers, we have lawyers on the other side, and you and a lot of those people have the same goals as us is that pay a mortgage and take care of their kids and prosper and have a good career. And then it's not always a war and a battle. And then sometimes um, you know, even your teammates or something like that, they may come uh and have a bad day, and instead of automatically saying, Man, what's going on with you, bro? Like in making it a war, you say, Hey, is everything okay? Give them a little bit of grace and see what's going on. Because they may have something going on at home that you don't understand. Yeah. I'm sorry, man, I went I went deep on it, but um anything else? I'm putting you on the spot here.

SPEAKER_00:

Patience.

SPEAKER_01:

Patience. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00:

Work, school, store, yeah, drive-thru, anything.

SPEAKER_01:

Control what you could control. Yeah. Um, Bradley made it a point to Nate that um as the world changes and we get more digital and AI and everything else, um, people are gonna have less and less interaction and gonna rely on outsource things. And those things don't move as fast as you want sometimes. And so there's kind of two points like in a digital world, be present and not be on your phone the whole time and take it in, and people are gonna appreciate genuine relationships in person. And number two is like there's gonna be things outside of your control, you just gotta be patient and and relax and control what you can control. I mean, that's a PhD. Yeah, that's a that's a good day. That's like a master in business, huh? Where do we go from here, Nate? What you gonna do, man? What's your plans? What do you what do you finish out school?

SPEAKER_00:

I plan to um go to WKU for construction management.

SPEAKER_01:

That's Western Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01:

Good. And what what what excites you about construction management?

SPEAKER_00:

I like to break things down. So in order to do demolition, I think uh construction management uh major would help me with my profession in that.

SPEAKER_01:

So can I start calling you the wrecking ball? Lil Nate the wrecking ball? Oh yeah, yeah. On and off the field. On and off the field. I love it. Nate, man, keep killing it, bro. It was such a pleasure having you around and introducing you to everyone and showing you off, my little friend. And uh, I'm so proud of you, the way you've grown and become such an awesome young man. And I'm I'm here for you. Anything you need, brother.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, man. Thank you, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you.

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Chaz Roberts

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