Walk at SMU to Raise Awareness About Homelessness

The SMU community and members of the public are invited to join “Home Is a Journey,” the first annual walk to raise awareness about homelessness, compassion and gratitude, to be held Saturday, November 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the SMU campus. Led by SMU Professor Willie Baronet, creator of We Are All Homeless, a long-running nonprofit art project and impact campaign, the march aims to kick off Homecoming Week at SMU with a spark of community engagement and awareness about the importance of home. Participants will walk across the SMU campus from Doak Walker Plaza to Dallas Hall, each holding a sign that was originally created and held by someone experiencing homelessness. The signs come from the collection of Professor Baronet, who has bought more than 1,800 signs from the homeless over the past 26 years. At the walk, items will be collected for donation to local organizations benefiting the homeless, and the first 1000 people to register will receive a free “Home Is a Journey” event t-shirt.

DETAILS:

Date

• Saturday, November 2, 2019

Time/location

• 8:30-9:45 a.m. – Registration/check-in at Doak Walker Plaza, outside the northeast corner of Gerald J. Ford Stadium, 5800 Ownby Drive on the SMU campus.
• 10 a.m.-12 p.m. – March, concluding at the lawn in front of Dallas Hall

Registration: Advance registration is available on Eventbrite. Participants may also register onsite the morning of the event. Registration is FREE.

Donations: Items will be collected for donation to four organizations benefiting the homeless, Vogel Alcove, Promise House, The Bridge, and Mosaic Family Services. Items to donate:

• Apparel (new or gently used; all sizes, adults and children)
• Toiletries
• Baby care items
• Canned goods

Sponsors: Between the Lines, Fat Straws Bubble Tea Co., Journeyman Ink, Maxcel Co., The McManemin Family Fund, Minuteman Press, NTA - A Riverbend Co., Q&M Consulting, LLC, Scarborough Specialties, SKS Retirement Solutions, SMU Meadows School of the Arts, Temerlin Advertising Institute, Mike and Mary Terry, and We Are All Homeless.org. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Maria Carrero at McArrero@qm-consult.org.

For more information: Visit the event’s Facebook page.

ABOUT WE ARE ALL HOMELESS: Artist Willie Baronet, the Stan Richards Professor of Creative Advertising at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, has purchased more than 1,800 signs from the homeless over the past 26 years. He uses this collection to create art installations to raise awareness about homelessness. Over the past 10 years he has presented approximately 35 installations of We Are All Homeless in the U.S. and the U.K., including exhibits at New York University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Cambridge. Baronet’s mission is to raise awareness and start new conversations about homelessness, compassion and the way we see and treat each other as people. The We Are All Homeless project was the subject of a 2016 documentary, Signs of Humanity, in which Baronet and three filmmakers drove across the country, interviewing more than 100 people on the streets and purchasing over 280 signs. The documentary has been shown at multiple film festivals and is available on Amazon Prime. Baronet has given several TEDx talks about the project, and his work has been featured in media all over the world including NPR, HuffPost, Yahoo! News, Buzzfeed and dozens of others.