Meet the Child Trying to End Child Homelessness

by Josie Raymond · 2010-03-24 14:39:00 UTC
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Country singer Jimmy Wayne is not even halfway through his cross-country walk to raise awareness about children who, like he did, age out of the foster care system and aren't prepared to avoid homelessness, and already another activist has set off on a similar mission. But there's a key difference. This time the advocate to end youth homelessness is actually, well, young.

Twelve-year-old Zach Bonner, a longtime advocate for the homeless (well, as longtime an advocate as he can be at just 12), got his start as a philanthropist (that strikes me as a strange title for a preteen, but that's how the media refers to him) when he collected truckloads of supplies following Hurricane Charley in 2004. That led to the formation of his Little Red Wagon Foundation. Last year he walked the 1,225 miles from his home in Florida to the White House on behalf of homeless children.

Yesterday Bonner began the 2,478-mile trek from Florida to California (granted, a donated RV will house him and his family on the trip). He'll be followed by a documentary crew for a film to be directed by the guy who did Rudy. When Bonner gets to his final destination, a Los Angeles Boys & Girls Club, in September, he'll help distribute items donated by sponsors of his trip, like 2,478 backpacks from the Office Depot Foundation. It's a combination of the most grassroots movement of all -- a walk to spread the word -- and a corporatized philanthropy project (with a cute redheaded kid as the centerpiece).

I always tear up when I see kids donating their lemonade stand money to earthquake survivors and other similar selfless acts. And there's no doubt that this kid is special. I just hope that his passion keeps these very adult problems from zapping his childhood. After all, childhood is the time of innocence, and innocence is not knowing just how many fellow Americans go without.

Check out pictures of Zach's first steps right here. You can follow his progress on Twitter, where he gives sweet updates like this one: "Kick off my walk tomorrow! Hard to believe I will walk 14 miles a day for around 179 days! Harder to believe over 1.3 million kids homeless!"

Photo credit: mescon

Josie Raymond is a Change.org editor who has reported from the streets of the South Bronx, written for several magazines that folded (not her fault) and fixed thousands of typos.

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