Walking in the Shoes of the Homeless

Holliston Man Leads 10^th Annual Winter Walk to End Homelessness

Sunday, December 2

HOLLISTON, Mass.| Devon Kinkead, 51, of Holliston has always been generous to charities and those less fortunate than himself. Like many, each holiday season, he would open up his wallet to local nonprofit organizations, choosing to support organizations whose mission aligned with his beliefs.

After several years of sending checks, he decided to dig deeper to find out which nonprofits had the greatest need and what they were accomplishing with his donations. His first call was to HomeStart, a nonprofit dedicated to ending and preventing homelessness in Greater Boston.

Kinkead took a tour and met with outreach workers and clients. Moved by the need, he wanted to apply his business and entrepreneurial skills to raise funds to end homelessness. It wasn’t until after the triathlete came in from a cold winter night’s run that the idea of a Winter Walk came to mind.

“All I could think about was what if I didn’t have a house to run home to with dry clothes, warm blankets and a hot shower? What if I had to stay out there all night in the freezing cold?” Kinkead asked. “The best way to bring people to this issue was to have them experience what it’s like to be out in the cold for an extended period of time, regardless of the temperature, snow or sleet. I wanted people to walk in the shoes of the homeless.”  And thus, the Winter Walk was born.

The 10th Annual Winter Walk is set to take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2 at the Boston Common. The event symbolizes the hardship and difficulties the homeless population experience every day as they walk the winter streets looking for shelter. This year, they hope to draw 500 participants to the Boston Common for a two-mile route and raise $200,000.

Since the Winter Walk’s inception in 2003, the charity event has grown not only in size and participation, but also in its reach. The Winter Walk now raises funds for two leading nonprofit organizations in Greater Boston that work to end homelessness, HomeStart and Hearth, which focuses on helping homeless elders find safe, affordable, appropriate housing. Overall, the Winter Walk has raised more than $100,000 to provide permanent and affordable housing and to assist those in danger of losing their homes.

In recent years, Kinkead received an outpouring of support from the Holliston High School National Honor Society. The group learns about the details of planning a charity walk, solicits volunteers, and promotes the walk throughout their school and the local community. To help students better understand the homeless demographic, Kinkead plans a trip to HomeStart and Hearth before the walk.

Recently the students toured a Hearth property and prepared and served breakfast to a group of elders that the nonprofit serves. Hearth develops and operates affordable, service-enriched housing geared for homeless and low-income elders. Elderly homelessness involves a unique set of issues very different from those surrounding family homelessness or homelessness in younger individuals.

“It’s invaluable for the students to meet the population they are helping through the Winter Walk,” says Kinkead. “You can see the change in the students. They learn the residents’ histories and who they used to be and how they fell into tragic circumstances that they couldn’t get out of. They learn that these elderly residents are someone’s grandmother and mother. Through this volunteer work, their view on the problem is changed forever, and that’s all I can hope for.”

Currently there are 16,000 homeless residents in Massachusetts including 6,000 Bostonians.

“It’s been a great journey and bringing the Winter Walk to Boston is a very important step,” says Kinkead. “But, I’d like nothing more than to not have to worry about homelessness. I’d be delighted to be out of business because everyone had a home.”

For questions, more information, or to register to participate in the 2012 Winter Walk, visit winterwalk.org.

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