SUMTER, S.C. — A set of twins are starting a 31-day walk in Sumter and planning to go to Philadelphia.
The Woods twins were born in Sumter, where they're starting their 600-mile journey to raise awareness about kids in the foster care system through their movement #FosterKidsMatter.
"Foster care to me, it isn't a topic that's talked about enough," Davon Woods said.
"It's simply just to raise awareness," his brother Tavon said. "That's all we ever wanted to do, to share our story and share stories of other kids that went through foster care. So that's all it is, raising awareness for kids in foster care."
The Woods brothers tell me they were placed in the foster care system immediately after being born at Sumter's Prisma Health Tuomey Hospital and were adopted at two years old.
"We didn't hear anything about foster care growing up, you know, so that kind of motivated us to be like, wow, like, you know, I understand there's a lot of advocates out there around the world, but it's like doing what we do is from a different, a different view because now kids have people that they feel as though they can relate to because we live in we walked in their shoes, and a lot of our stories are pretty much similar," Davon said.
"So that's why we kind of do what we do to give kids a voice because there's so much kids in the system feel like they don't have a voice or 'I'm afraid to speak out," Tavon said. "So that's what we do. We do the hard part; we do the speaking out, just so that we can shine a light on that system."
To draw attention to their own story and the experiences of kids living in the foster care system, they're planning to walk from the Sumter County Courthouse to Philadelphia carrying one backpack each and wearing a pair of Hoka shoes donated to them.
They've walked through different states before but say their furthest walk was a 96-mile trip from Georgia to Florida.
"Just mentally, it just is very hard just to be able to push, and we do 20-plus miles a day. So to be able to… that's walking eight hours straight," Tavon said. "And that - it's hard, but you know we find the strength to continue to keep going."
Sumter residents like their friend Justin McCoon say they'll cheer on the brothers as they go.
"Man, this right here is a big sacrifice. It's during the holidays, for one. People don't understand that takes a lot when they could be sitting at home warm, you know, Christmas time's coming, and the biggest thing is the awareness they're bringing because there's not enough awareness," McCoon said. "It's taken fire faster than I could believe, and I tell them all the time I don't think they realize how big it is right now, but it's definitely something people are following it, like, all over the country. So that's the biggest thing with it."
"It's amazing just to know that you know the impact that we set to do is coming to pass and just to know that we have the support of the city is amazing," Tavon adds about the community support.
The walk will not only be a way for the brothers to raise awareness about foster care, they tell me, but it's also a way to further strengthen their bond, which the brothers say is "unbreakable."
"It's not by coincidence that God allowed us to be twins because, you know, we - it's just basically like we was built for everything that we went through," Davon said. "So, it's definitely a blessing to not just have a person that looked like me, but somebody that almost, you know we almost think alike in certain situations, so it is definitely a blessing and on these walks, it just makes us stronger, because we just be talking and just talking and talking about everything that we experienced and how everything is happening now for us."
Sumter residents will send off the brothers as they start their journey tomorrow at 8 a.m. at the Sumter County Courthouse. To follow your journey, you can visit their website at FKM.Life.