'Walk a Mile in Their Shoes' Event Benefits Kids Experiencing Homelessness

From Turning Points: Turning Points’ 5th annual “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” will be held on Saturday, April 1 2017, at South Coquina Beach starting at 4:00pm.

All of 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 kids in Manatee and Sarasota Counties every year.

According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, children experiencing homelessness are sick four times more often than other children. They also 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. 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. The Walk is a 1 Mile Family Fun Awareness Walk along with: a sand blast/castle competition, drawings & raffles, tee shirts (for pre-registered walkers), a rock climbing wall, family pictures, face painting, kids activities, great food, a fantastic DJ and the post walk party & sunset watch.

Registration 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. You can also sponsor a child to walk for $10.00 or sponsor 10 children to walk for $100.00 or sponsor 25 children to walk for $250.00.

Pre-register at www.turningpointswalk.org

There are many sponsorship opportunities available. Please contact Margi Dawson mdawson@tpmanatee.org if you are interested in sponsoring this event.

About Turning Points

Turning Points and our Bill Galvano One Stop Center partners provide a remarkable variety of services designed to assist individuals and families on their path to financial stability and independence. Turning Points is the one stop shop for preventing and ending homelessness in our community. We provide day resource services (such as hot showers, laundry services, clothing, food), employment services, rental and utility assistance, veteran’s services (employment, housing and childcare), and free medical and dental care for the uninsured and underinsured. Over 10,000 people received help last year with critical services targeted to the essential needs of people in crisis. Turning Points can only provide this high standard of service because of our caring, compassionate volunteers and strong community support.

For more information, visit http://tpmanatee.org/

Photos courtesy of Turning Points