On Saturday, pop group Hanson will lead the latest iteration of their Take The Walk campaign in Toronto. The initiative, which the group has led since 2007, sees its three members — brothers Zac, Taylor and Isaac Hanson — walk a mile barefoot ahead of their shows, to raise money for and awareness of AIDS initiatives in Africa, and for every person who shows up to walk with them, the group donates a dollar (and participants can also make separate donations). We spoke with singer Taylor Hanson earlier today ahead of the group’s National Post Sessions performance about Take The Walk. If you’re in Toronto this weekend and want to participate, click here for more information.
Talking about extreme poverty is something that everyone feels overwhelmed by, and it’s not something where you rally a bunch of people and go: “solved.” What really struck us was how devastating it is to see an entire generation born into a world where they might be born with a disease. So many of the solutions come down to a very inexpensive thing: medicine, a pair of shoes. What we also saw was that we were witnessing this massive shift int he world where we can all be more connected through technology. What we wanted to try to do was, in a very humble way, was talk to the people around us about how we can individually look at our roles. So walking one mile barefoot is both a symbol and also a very powerful, galvanizing moment for everybody’s involved. The reason for doing it is that we feel like our generation … history will look at AIDS as something we had to grapple with. And we want to be a part of the solution. It’s about unlocking each individual who ever walks.
For more information on Hanson’s tour and how to buy tickets, click here.