Walking For Change

Armand Young is an Angel that walks among us who has dedicated his life to helping others through selfless giving and sacrifice! Please support the walk!

Welcome to Bamboothewalk! I am Armand Young and my journey started on April 16th 2007 on the Santa Monica Pier in California to help others through acts of random kindness and selfless giving in the names of fallen Military personnel, Firefighters, Police Officers, EMS Workers & Those that lost their lives in the 9 -11 attacks as a way to make things right between God and I and my fellow man for all the wrongs that I have done in my life. When I started my walk three years ago I had a Flag and a Bamboo Pole I carried with me for people that I helped to sign as a promise to pay it forward with another act of human kindness of their own accord within 24 to 48 hours so it will not just be put on hold to die.

I find homeless families with children or families with children in need through local Churches, Missions, Family Centers, or Homeless Shelters in every town and city I go through that are in need and challenge others in their community to help them directly in the names of others by providing them Clothes, Food, Jobs, Homes to call there own and more to get them off the streets and keep them off the streets and not just a temporary fix
in an act of positivity for the losses of our nation and to correct the wrongs I have done to others.

I have been jumped and beaten at times because people thought I was a bum and that I was disgracing the flag, but I have touched many lives along the way and gained as much as I have lost.

I was born in Providence, Rhode Island on May 16th, 1964 and moved to San Diego when I was five where I was raised. While I was growing up I had a friend that lived by me. One day I saw another girl on her porch and I asked her if it was her sister and she said yes it was her sister. I told her one-day I would marry her. It didn't happen as she married another man and moved away to West Virginia.

As a teenager and young adult I was constantly in trouble and on the wrong side of the law being arrested for everything from breaking and entering to grand theft auto. I was not a good person in a good place in life. Almost 20 years of my life have been spent behind bars and deservedly so. I was arrested for the last time in 1989 and served 6years and 9 months. Upon my release in 1996 I was determined to make things right with world and committed my life to helping others.

I got good job and bought a new house and a truck. I started going to Mexico and working with people there to build homes for families in need. I helped build over 40 homes on my off time from work. While I was there my friends started asking me why I wasn't helping people in my own country? So I gave up my home and job in California and with Flag and Staff in hand I started my Adventure.

All of the local Subways have provided me with free food and for that I am grateful and thankful and I have slept anywhere I can find shelter along the way. Most of the time when I get into town I receive a hero's welcome and the local fire departments have been great about putting me up in the local fire halls. I have slept in Police stations and on the street. I have had people put me up in hotels but that is a rare blessing when it happens.

When I walk into town the first place I stop is the local police department and let them know who I am, what I am doing, why I am there, and how they can help. All help is paid directly to those in need , the establishment, or utility in question in order to help the family in question. Never to me!

My cause has helped many people in many places along my great journey. Which has taken me from Santa Monica to San Diego, From San Diego down 15 to Las Vegas, From Las Vegas up to Utah, and From Utah down 70 to Colorado where I was sleeping under a railroad bridge when I was robbed and my flag with all my patches on it and signatures was stolen along with all of my other worldly possessions'. My camcorder with all the video of my journey to that point was lost along with my SD cards and hundreds of pictures and over forty hours of video are all gone.

From Colorado I continued to Sydney, Nebraska and then east to Iowa. While I was in Dubuque, Iowa I received the news that my mother had taken ill and passed away. I stopped my walk and went home to California. We buried my mother on November 15th, 2008. While I was there a friend told me my sweetheart of 30 years was there in town and we started talking and got together after all those years, which is a miracle and a blessing onto itself as she had moved away to Charlestown, West Virginia. I stopped my walk and went to West Virginia and got Married on January 31st, of 2009 and then returned to the point where I left off to continue my walk with God and my fellow man.

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