Jimmy Wayne says this picture was taken "somewhere in nowhere New Mexico, on US 60 West." Photo courtesy of artist.

At this time a year ago, Jimmy Wayne was putting in a bit of lat-minute training as he made plans for a journey that had all kinds of potential pitfalls he could not completely anticipate. He announced just before Christmas 2009 that he intended to walk halfway across America — from Nashville to Phoenix — to raise awareness for the issue of homeless teens.

Jimmy did indeed set off on his Meet Me Halfway walk on New Year’s Day with Middle Tennessee windchills appropriately in… the teens, and his excursion became one of the most unusual pursuits of 2010. It stands at No. 8 as GAC counts down the one dozen top country news stories of the past 12 months.

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Jimmy Wayne says this picture was taken "somewhere in nowhere New Mexico, on US 60 West." Photo courtesy of artist.

By the time he gets to Phoenix, Jimmy Wayne will be very tired. Actually, he’s already worn himself out with his Meet Me Halfway Walk from Nashville to Arizona’s capital city — a 1,700-mile trek to draw attention to teen homelessness.

But the finish line is now in sight. Jimmy crossed from New Mexico into the Grand Canyon State June 30, and he’s now set a big celebration concert on July 31 in Mesa, Ariz., at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill. Jimmy plans to walk the final 13 miles to HomeBase Youth Services the next day. Fans are being encouraged to join him for the last mile and to stick around for a ceremony once he reaches his destination.

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Jimmy Wayne on the set of GAC's "Top 20 Country Countdown."

After a week in which Tennessee wind chills dipped frequently into the single digits, Jimmy Wayne is alive and well and in surprisingly good spirits.

Jimmy took off from Nashville on New Year’s Day on his Meet Me Halfway walk to Phoenix, a challenging effort in which he’ll battle fatigue and the elements as he raises awareness of homeless teens in America. It has been a sometimes lonely experience, he’s mentioned in his daily tweets, but he’s not going it entirely alone. People have left food along the side of the road with his name on it. The Hawk family gave him a place to sleep Sunday night. And one stranger offered goggles to help shield the snow from his face.

“There’s been so many people come out and offer me coffee,” he said Monday morning in a 10-minute webcast from the outskirts of Jackson, Tenn. People “just pull their car up on the side of the road and give me a place to charge my cell phone and, you know, even these goofy goggles here… Snow was gettin’ in my eyes, and I was thinkin’, ‘I need some goggles.’ And about a mile down the road during a stop, [a man] gave me these goggles. There’s so much good out there in this world. I know that sometimes we tend to say, ‘You know, it’s a cruel world’ or ‘the world sucks’ or something. But really it doesn’t. I think when you get out and you really try to promote goodness, it attracts [good people]. You guys have proven that.”

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Jimmy Wayne on the set of GAC's "Top 20 Country Countdown."

If, by chance, one of Jimmy Wayne‘s New Year’s Resolutions was to walk more, he’s certainly keeping it. On New Year’s Day, Jimmy left Nashville to walk to Phoenix to bring awareness to teen homelessness.

On Monday, January 11 at 9 a.m. Central, Jimmy will conduct his first live web broadcast from the road during his 1660-mile walk.  The website for Jimmy’s “Meet Me Halfway” walk went live today. On the site, fans can track his progress, view video and photo updates from the road as well as donate to “Meet Me Halfway” to help homeless youth.

So far, the Southeast’s COLD temperatures have slowed Jimmy down a bit, but he’s pushing through to (hopefully) warmer climates. Currently (Friday afternoon) he’s just outside Jackson, Tenn.
  
“I’ve had to sleep inside the past several nights because of these single digit temperatures,” says Jimmy. Continue Reading

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Jimmy Wayne photo courtesy of the The Valory Music Co.

During his teens, Jimmy Wayne bounced around the North Carolina foster-home system and lived for a time as a homeless person. It was only when an elderly married couple took him in for six years that he found some stability and was able to set himself on a path toward his current stardom.

He’s not forgotten what it was like living without a home, and he hopes to make the rest of the nation aware beginning New Year’s Day when he begins a “Meet Me Halfway” journey. He plans to walk from Nashville to Phoenix, sleeping outdoors, navigating the harsh temperatures of winter and providing regular online updates that will call attention to the tragedy of teen homelessness.

“I’ve had a lot of friends who… I lived in group homes with that ended up dead,” Jimmy said during a press conference at Monroe Harding, a Music City facility for at-risk kids. “When I worked in prison as an officer, I had a lot of friends come in as convicts. I had a foster brother who I spent half of my life with come in as a convict. It was a very hard experience seein’ that stuff.”

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