Walk a Mile in Their Shoes

Turning Points’ 3rd annual “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” will be held on Saturday, April 4 2015, at South Coquina Beach starting at 4:00pm. The Sandy River Charitable Foundation has pledged a $20,000.00 match if we can raise $20,000.00 in sponsorships and walkers. So we are trying to get the word out for walkers to register so that we can receive this generous donation.

The proceeds of this event go directly to fund programs benefiting homeless children and their families. While the label “homeless” conjures a variety of images of people in crisis, rarely does it include the image of children. Yet the reality is that there are thousands of homeless children in Manatee and Sarasota Counties every year. It is the fastest growing segment of homelessness. One out of every 30 kids in the U.S. experienced homelessness last year!

According to the National Center on Family homelessness, children experiencing homelessness are sick four times more often than other children. They have four times as many respiratory infections, twice as many ear infections, five times more gastro intestinal problems and are four times more likely to have asthma. These children have high rates of obesity due to nutritional deficiencies and go hungry at twice the rate of other children. They also have three times the rate of emotional and behavioral problems compared to non-homeless children.

“Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” is a fun event for kids, families and individuals to get together and help the members in their own community. It is a 1 mile family fun awareness walk along with: a sand blast/castle competition (between area schools), fun activities, tee shirts (for pre-registered walkers), family pictures, face painting, rock climbing wall, trampoline, great food, Zumba, a live steel drums performer, music by Disney’s # 1 DJ and the post walk party & sunset watch.

Check-in begins at 4:00pm with the Walk at 5:30pm and the post party at 6:00pm. Registration is FREE for kids under 5, $10.00 for students & kids, $20.00 for individual adults and $45.00 for families. 

Please pre-register at www.turningpointswalk.org

Here is the PSA - https://vimeo.com/122110247