Jimmy Wayne finishing up 1,700-mile walk for homeless kids

 

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But Wayne is nearing his seven-month goal: Phoenix. The organizer of the "Meet Me Halfway" walk will arrive in that area the weekend of July 31. He is hosting a free concert at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill, 1065 N. Dobson Road, Mesa, on July 31, and his official arrival will happen in Phoenix on the morning of August 1. (Visit Wayne's website for more information.)

An impassioned Wayne explained that he was once a homeless teen, and that's what motivated him to start this campaign.

"Fortunately, I was taken in by a family and given a home," Wayne said of Russell and Beatrice Costner. "[A year ago] I was staring at my thermostat, I was turning up the heat, staring at my coffee and a little bit of guilt came over me. I probably shouldn't have felt guilty. I've worked hard for what I have. I felt guilty because I didn't do anything in 2009. I felt I should give back. It made me feel like, 'Man I have to do something -- I have to do something now.'

"It was a call to action. It was very sincere. It's real. It’s conviction. I thought, 'I have to do something on a grand scale, like walking across the United States of America.' I thought, 'Man that sounds crazy.' Sure enough, I thought, 'Well it is crazy. That's what's going to raise awareness.'"

Wayne, who has released three albums, shies away from talking about his music when he's doing interviews about the "Meet Me Halfway" campaign.

"It's not about me," said Wayne, who is best known for his songs "Stay Gone" and the Hall and Oates cover "Sara Smile." "I haven't sold one record doing this. It ain't my goal. I put everything else on hold -- my career, my personal life, my social life. Everything went on hold and I left Nashville alone. No one was with me. My own support that's been generated because of this has been astronomical. People know about it, talk about it amongst their classrooms at school, churches, business. That's what raising awareness is about."

He's even received support from fellow former homeless teen Michael Oher, on whom the movie "The Blind Side" was based.

"He sent me a personal direct message," Wayne said. "That makes me feel really good, the name recognition, etc. It feels really good to have support. This isn't self-promotion. This is the real deal. It's about raising awareness."

Wayne said it breaks his heart to know that there are children out there who do not have anywhere to go.

"We try to figure out how a plane flies," Wayne said. "I'm like, 'Hell, why is a kid homeless in America?' That's more amazing to me than how a plane flies. We can explain that? How do you explain a kid without a home? We give and give and give to other countries -- and there's nothing wrong with that -- but why aren't we giving that here? Why aren't we on television doing telethons to raise awareness and money to open a facility to get our kids off the streets who want a home?

"I’m not talking about the ones who want to be crackheads, or who choose to get into drugs and gangs. I'm not walking for them. If they chose to be hardheads, then more power to them. There's a place called jail for them. I'm walking for people who care, who want to meet me halfway, who want to meet us halfway."