Taking the Walk

Taking the walk
By Rosalyn Stevens

Mid October in Detroit is not the place most people would imagine getting excited for a barefoot walk. But that was the atmosphere outside The Fillmore on Oct. 10, when about 100 or so people gathered to take the walk with Hanson. I was one of them.
Taking the walk can mean different things to different people, but to the three brothers from Oklahoma, it’s about suffering with cold and sore feet for a few minutes to put into perspective the realities of many others living without basic necessities around the world. It’s about doing something simple, yet tangible, to create a change for a better society, a better world.
For each person who joins the brothers on the mile, the band donates one dollar to various causes, from putting shoes on the feet of children who’ve never owned a pair, to building wells and supplying access to clean water for villages in Africa. The dollar can also be given to supply antiretroviral medication, to prevent the passage of the AIDS virus from a pregnant mother to her children, or to maintain text-message technology to keep patients in touch with doctors around the world.
It’s nothing new for a band or celebrity to take on a cause, but there’s something different about what this group has taken on. It’s not all about them. The decision for where the money is donated is up to each walker, and decided through a registration form completed at the end of each mile. In addition, the band encourages individuals and groups to host their own walks, and once completed, the band pledges to contribute a dollar for each participant.
On our first walk this year in Detroit middle brother Taylor explained why his band chose to focus on the problems in Africa. He said the problems related to poverty, lack of education, unsafe water, and AIDS/HIV infections come together to create a seemingly unstoppable force.
While recording their last album, appropriately titled “The Walk,” the band visited villages in Africa to see first-hand the struggles that people faced day after day. They saw struggle, but beyond the struggle, they saw solutions. In one case, the band teamed up with TOMS shoes, which donates shoes for each pair purchased, to a child in Africa. In 2007, Hanson joined the TOMS team to deliver the first crate of 50,000 shoes.
“You guys already have the tools that can make a completely tragic situation into something that is completely turned around,” Taylor told us. “A pair of shoes really does change a child’s life.”
I’ve completed about 16 miles with the band, from trudging through the snow in 2007 to taking a nice stroll in the springtime of 2008. The last six walks I completed posed no challenge to a seasoned walker like myself, but looking around at the bare feet beside me, ahead of me and behind me, I was inspired.
Yes, it’s an absolute thrill to have an opportunity to walk beside a band I’ve loved since my pre-teenage years. But it’s an even greater thrill to see that these men have the ability to inspire action in others. Last year, the band set out to ‘walk around the world,’ with a target of 24,902 miles. To date, more that 34,000 miles have been completed.
During each walk, the group stops at a midpoint to talk about the reasons for walking barefoot. It’s not a push for awareness, they explain. It’s taking the step from awareness to action.
“This is about you guys doing it,” he said. “This is about the walkers, the people that are actually here, realizing your power to do something.”
The power to make a difference lies within today’s young generation. With the endless technology available to us, the world’s become a smaller place. Problems that once seemed too far away for comprehension are now, seemingly, in our own backyard. We don’t need awareness, because we all know the problems the global society faces.
We need action, one step at a time. We all need to take the walk.