How can I provide the 3rd-Person Template Hero Animation Blueprint with velocity data?

(from an answerhub post)

Full question: How can I provide the 3rd-Person Template Hero Animation Blueprint with velocity data if its SkeletalMeshComponent is in a Pawn instead of a Character?

The blueprint node for Get Velocity says that it returns the velocity of the root component if it is either using physics or has a movementcomponent associated with it. I don’t want my pawn to use physics, but it isn’t clear how to get my custom PawnMovementComponent to give it a velocity vector.