2021 West TN Walk Like MADD to be Virtual

Due to the rise in Covid-19 cases and increasing shut-downs in Shelby County, the 2021 West TN Walk Like MADD will be a virtual event held concurrently with the Middle TN Walk Like MADD currently scheduled for October 23, 2021. Your health and safety are our top priority and we appreciate your understanding of this decision.

The Walk Like MADD event is a very important event for MADD as it brings in much needed funds to support victims services and prevention/educational programming in our state. Though the world has changed, MADD is still providing free victims services to those who have been impacted by impaired driving crashes at a time when our victims need us most. It is even more important in these uncertain times that our victims know MADD is still here and available for the emotional support and guidance on which they have come to rely. We are proud to be working both in-person and virtually all over the state to continually meet these needs. We are also still working diligently to provide in-person and online programming to help parents and students understand the dangers of underage drinking and drugs, to show offenders the real-life consequences of impaired driving crashes through our Victim Impact Panel program, and to monitor DUI court cases through our Court Monitoring program to ensure they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. To continue to provide these critical services, your support is needed now more than ever! Our Virtual West Tennessee Walk is an important part of helping us continue to do what we do and we thank you, in advance, for your participation!

So let’s talk about how this will work:

How is a Virtual Walk Event different from our normal live Walk Event?

Because we are currently scheduled to host our 2021 Middle TN Walk Like MADD on October 23 in Nashville, we will live-stream the Opening Ceremony and include our West TN Walk teams and victims as part of this event. When we are ready to do the Walk Kick-off, we will again start live-streaming. West TN victim signs will be included on our Walk Route around the lake at Centennial Park and, as the live-stream follows the Walk route, we encourage all of our West TN Walk participants to join us virtually and walk along with us in your own neighborhood. We will also have some interactive ways for you to let us know you are taking part with electronic Remembrance Boards and other commentary.

What about Team Alley and all the Victim Tables?

For our live Walk Like MADD events, teams are invited to set-up a table on “Team Alley” to display momentos and photos to honor and remember those for whom they walk. For our virtual walk, we will offer an online Team Alley where you can participate by sending us a brief video to represent your team’s table. Go to the West TN Walk page at www.walklikemadd.org/WestTN and click the icon for “Virtual Team Alley” for more details and instructions on how to create and submit your video. In short, you can set up an actual “table” in your home and decorate it as you would at a live event, then do a video describing the items on display, or you can simply walk around your home showing us your photos and momentos as they are normally displayed there. The videos will be posted to our Virtual Team Alley page and available to view shortly after we receive them. They will also stay active even past the virtual Walk event date. Though our teams won’t be able to have an actual table at our walk location, we are excited to offer this alternative that actually allows your “table” to be viewed for a much longer timeframe with our virtual option!

What about our team and personal Walk pages?

Our Walk site with all our individual and team pages will function the same. You will register to participate and set-up your pages at walklikemadd.org/WestTN.

Will Registration be different?

When you register, you will have the choice of registering as a Virtual Adult Walker or a Virtual Youth Walker (ages 5-18.) Registration fees for our virtual event will be discounted by $5 throughout the entire registration period now that the event is virtual. So instead of the normal registration fees of $25/adult and $20/youth for our live event, the registration fees will be $20/adult and $15/youth. In addition, since the event is online, registration will remain open right up to the Start Time of the event. On the day of the event, go to @MADDTennesse on Facebook for our Opening Ceremony on Facebook Live which will start at 2pm CT.

What is the same?

Teams/walkers will still use their own Walk pages to help spread awareness about MADD’s mission and engage friends, family, coworkers, and their community to donate to their page. As always, it is important that you customize your page to help people understand why supporting MADD is important to you. Additionally, we will still honor and recognize the folks who raise the most with our Top Walker and Top Team awards during the virtual Opening Ceremony. Finally, on event day, we will still have Walk signs that tell the stories of the victims and survivors for whom we walk. Those are the signs that will be posted on our Walk route and broadcast during the Facebook Live event.