Actor prepares for the most personal role of his life

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/08/2010 (5891 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As an actor working in Los Angeles, Steve Braun is used to walking in another person’s shoes to bring their story to the screen.

But the southwest Winnipeg-raised actor’s latest role finds him walking in his own shoes to raise money for two women’s shelters in Manitoba.

The Walk For The Shelters campaign will see Braun, 33, walk from Winkler to The Forks from Aug. 17 to 21. He is looking to raise awareness and money for the Genesis House in Winkler and Ikwe Widdjiitiwin in Winnipeg.

The approximately 150-km walk is a tribute to a family story that has been passed down from generation to generation involving his great-grandmother, Mary Braun, who lived in Lowe Farm, Man.

“I’ve always heard this story that my great-grandmother in the 1930s was forced out of her house with the threat of violence and sent on a 10-mile walk to the next closest farmhouse in October,” Braun said in a recent phone interview from his home in Studio City, Calif.

“It got me thinking where do women in southern Manitoba from my community, the Mennonite community, go now when it happens?”

said Braun, who spent time growing up in Fort Richmond.

Sharon Morgan, executive director of Ikwe Widdjiitiwin, said that Braun’s effort is greatly appreciated and will benefit many women from across the city who use the aboriginal crisis and abuse shelter’s services.

“We get women from all over the city and the West End is one of our bigger areas, as well as the North End and Brooklands,” Morgan said.

Jackie Hogue, executive director of the West Central Women’s Resource Centre in the West End, said that her organization has referred people to Ikwe before, and any assistance a shelter like that can receive will be put to good use.

“The demand for space is probably 90% more than the space that exists. It’s just huge,” Hogue said.

Hogue is impressed with Braun’s walk and hopes it inspires more men to be involved and take responsibility.

“We’re all one community, but unfortunately right now it’s the women that are experiencing the majority of the abuse.”

Part of the walk will have Braun retracing his great-grandmother’s steps, and he expects to be thinking about what she was thinking during her own walk.

“The fear and the lack of options must have been unbelievable.”

Since moving to Los Angeles six years ago, Braun has landed roles on such television shows as CSI: Miami and The Mentalist and the film Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.

But he got his start acting in local filmmaker Adam Rodin’s films, Hand and Scalpers.

Rodin has known Braun for more than 20 years — and isn’t surprised at his friend’s social activism.

“He seemed to grasp right and wrong from a very early age,” Rodin said.

“I think it was only a matter of time before he wanted to become active to support those ideas and ideals close to his heart.”

This isn’t the first time that Braun has walked for a cause. In 2007 and ’08, he campaigned on behalf of Barack Obama and walked from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to raise money and awareness for his campaign.

While he had the unforgiving Mohave Desert to deal with on that walk, he acknowledges he will face an even more formidable opponent on this one.

“My only fear, and I am afraid of it, is mosquitoes,” laughed Braun, who hopes to raise $30,000 and make the walk an annual event.

Braun’s journey is scheduled to finish on Aug. 21 with a walk down Broadway to The Forks. He is encouraging people to join him throughout the walk.

His progress can be followed on www.walkfortheshelters.com, where donations can also be made.

Braun is also looking for corporate sponsors who can contact him at stevebraun@actingthetruth.com.

For more information, and to donate, visit www.walkfortheshelters.com.

trevor.suffield@canstarnews.com