It started with one walk.
And another. And another.
In 2008, the signature fundraising event for Mothers Against Drunk Driving® launched with roughly 30 walks taking place that year.
Yesterday
Immediately, we recognized that we had found a significant and important way to connect with victims and survivors. Just as importantly, it was an event people who had not been ravaged by drunk or drugged driving could attend and appreciate as well.
Why?
It’s not just a casual stroll through a park or a zoo or a mall although we now have walks that take place in all those venues. It gives victims and survivors a place to not only honor and remembers those taken from us too soon and so violently but it also allows all of us as a community to take compassionate and healing steps forward to end these preventable crimes.
Today
Now, 10 years later, we have over 90 Walk sites all across the country.
The past 10 years have provided victims and survivors a place to come together and celebrate and honor their loved one’s life. Many families have expressed how much participating in the Walk has helped them through the grieving process and showed them they are not alone.
MADD offers life-saving programs and services at no cost to families who have lost a loved one due to a drunk and drugged driving crash. Walk Like MADD provides these families with a place to rally together and raise awareness.
During the past 10 years, 250,000 participants and countless more families, corporate partners and community supporters have raised $30 million dollars to put a stop to this 100% preventable crime. Volunteers have been the backbone of this program and we thank them for their continued support as we strive to make the roads safe once again. Join us in 2018 for a Walk Like MADD event near you to continue to remember, inspire and commit to a day of No More Victims®.
Tomorrow
The tenth anniversary is significant. Many such similar events have been cast aside after a decade, but not walks.
But this is not the end.
The walks that take place this year (and the next and the one after that) will fuel MADD’s efforts to end drunk driving and fight drugged driving. All the funds raised stay within that community, ensuring that each walk improves the specific area where the walk takes place.
Thank you to everyone who has made the past ten years a success. And thank you to the people who will fill the next ten years with healing and hope.
