Thank you for joining us. This message is long, so bare with me. I want you to understand our event and how it came about.
Let me start by saying that we are the biggest patriots you will ever find.....
Over the last several years, my wife, Heather and I have researched the internet and watched many documentaries regarding our nation's issues. This has become our favorite past time, but brings a lot of heartache as well. We are very passionate about our country and its people, but we see a nation divided. We decided we could not take it anymore. We had to do something about it!
Our initial plan was to walk around the country, by ourselves, and simply talk to people. Try to understand their views. After laying out the initial plan, I decided to post our idea on MySpace, to tell our story and generate interest. We did not think anything would really come of it. We started receiving a few "good luck" and "proud of you" messages, but that was it and that was all we were wanting. We were having a blast just telling our story to people, letting them know what we were about to do and why.
Our initial idea, that was posted on MySpace, was about the two of us walking one mile for every word in our US Constitution. We stated that we wanted to walk in the shape of a star, symbolizing "hope", starting in Austin, TX and reaching Tallahassee, FL, Washington, DC, Green Bay, WI, Lincoln, NE and back to Austin. We just wanted to tell the people that we love our country, but wanted to keep our Constitution and Liberties in tact. We mapped out a plan that will cover an average of 26.5 miles per day, or a little over a marathon per day. The event starts on July 4, 2008 and ends on Jan 1, 2009.
One by one, people were requesting more information. They wanted to understand what we were doing and why. We were getting emails like crazy. Then one night, a guy from Seattle called and gave us a great idea. He said, "Why don't you make each leg of the star, a certain project?". I feel to my knees. What a great idea! We talked for about 3 hours and came up with a plan. Each leg of the star will represent a project or an issue that our country is facing today. We thought of the 10 toughest issues. The first leg, from Austin to Memphis will be the Awareness Project, talking about health care issues, 9/11 issues, etc. The second leg from Memphis to Tallahassee will be the Civil Rights Project, the third leg will be a Veteran's Project and so on. At each point of the STAR, we are going to hold a rally to discuss our problems within these legs. We are going to let ALL people get a chance to speak, no matter if you are a liberal, conservative, green, yellow, purple or whatever...you get a chance to say something. This is a platform for everyone!
By the time I got our new idea on MySpace, people are flocking to it like crazy! Our page is generating 300+ friend requests per day. We are receiving 200 emails a day! We are being contacted by filmmakers that want to do a documentary and go the whole trip with us (one guy is from the UK). Bands are contacting us about playing at our rallies. One artist wrote us a song, just for the LibertyWalk2008 event. Dozens of radio hosts and TV pod casts were contacting us as well. We have a list of around 600 people that will be marching with us, volunteering with us, and 20+ people will be walking the entire trip with us too. We have a biker gang that wants to pass out water bottles and pick up trash. We have a company that wants to ride with us and interview people the whole way! We have a book author that has contacted us. This event turned into a monster overnight!
Since March 1st, around the time we changed our idea to a more open forum, we have received the support of many, many people. People all over the nation and all over the world. Now, the LibertyWalk is turning into a non-profit organization, where we can put the money back into community centers, feed the poor, and assist our veterans! We have Board Members, Committee Members and volunteers signing up everyday! We have already been on two radio stations and have reserved dates with more from Portland, Madison, New York, Florida, Seattle, and Texas. We have been in contact with very well known individuals about speaking at our events.
It is going nuts right before our eyes!
Now, we have been asked to fly to Seattle to attend a conference and meet with Sponsors and Donors. We have been contacted by shoe companies and many others.
Planning has gone from the two of us walking by ourselves to a MONSTER task and in just 45 days! Can you imagine how much support we will have by the time we begin? We have city planners on board, logistic specialists, fitness experts, advertising/marketing people, and web designers working with us. We have also decided to make this the biggest VOTER REGISTRATION turnout in the history of the United States, by having everyone we run into, register to vote.
We know the event will only get bigger by the day and we are preparing for it. There is a lot of work ahead, but with patriots like yourself, we know we can accomplish our goal. We want to bring awareness of the hard issues to everyone, the whole country. We know that we will not be walking on the west coast, but we want the support of everyone. We have already been discussing the possibility of a LibertyWalk2009 event on the west coast next year, and perhaps an AfricaWalk, a EuropeWalk, or even a GlobalWalk.
This is a dream come true for us. It was simply a little walk for two people. Now it has turned out to be a walk for all Americans!
Let's get everyone involved during an election year! Please tell as many people as you can about our project. We will need the help of all of you!
Yours very truly,
Cody and Heather Lunsford
Founders - LibertyWalk2008
Dallas, TX
www.libertywalk.org and www.libertywalk2008.com
