We're holding our (virtual) Walk the Vote this year on Saturday, June 13, with a week of online events leading up to it.
- We'd love for you to join us at walkthevote.org
We've held two Walk the Vote events before, and each had about 500 Kansans show up on a Saturday morning to raise money for Mainstream and walk in downtown Overland Park. We talk about the Walk as an opportunity to "fly your flag," supporting the issues or candidates most important to you. Candidates had teams. Friends made teams together. We had a team for people too busy to make a team! The weather held and it was a raucous good time, with costumes, Walk shirts, chants, signs, flags, kids, dogs, and more.
The best part about it, for us at Mainstream, was seeing the enthusiasm. Not just for us—for what Mainstream does—but for the political process. For getting people excited about issues. For getting people excited about voting.
At Mainstream, we take a stand on lots of issues. We testify and rally, we get people to send emails and call, we show up and get our people to show up for everything from gun safety to public education, gay rights to women's rights, reproductive health to Medicaid expansion, and more. We do it because our mission is to get Kansans, you, to engage with the political process to bring about change that protects all of us.
So when we talk about joining Walk the Vote, we're asking you to walk the vote for your cause. Raising money for Mainstream allows us to keep doing the work to support all the issues we hold dear, to work with our partners like the ACLU, PP, the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, the KNEA and others, to work with legislators and other elected officials to change Kansas for the better.
Walking the vote in a pandemic
COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into our plans. Like so many other nonprofits, we're working out how to gather the support we need to keep doing our work, in a world where our best tactic, the social event, is no longer part of the plan.
This year, we're holding Walk the Vote virtually, with a week of online activities from June 5-12, and then a virtual "together" walk on the morning of Saturday, June 13. We have a team of volunteers preparing online events for the Walk Week, complete with giveaways and contests. Maybe even trivia!
We're building a community to walk together, but this time we're doing it all across Kansas. We'd love to have you with us, and appreciate all the support you've shown us throughout the years.
Stay home to stay safe, vote, and do more than vote: Walk the Vote!
- Danny Novo
Communications Director
