Auburn’s ultra-walker completed his epic journey to New York City on Monday.
What’s left are a precious 70 miles to towns and communities he wants to help.
Don Stevenson, 72, known as the “Pacin’ Parson,” finished his nearly five-month journey to New York City on Monday in good health and spirits. It was a memorable and worthwhile walk – all to raise awareness and money for Huntington’s disease, a progressively degenerative brain disorder.
The walk raised $25,000 for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. A benefit concert in Greenwich Village on Sunday night raised $100,000 for the cause.
“It all went well. The body feels good,” Stevenson said while visiting patients at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center’s Huntington’s Disease Unit in New York City on Monday afternoon. He also visited officials at the HDSA headquarters at the Empire State Building later in the day.
“It was a different walk this time,” Stevenson added. “We went to many new destinations, to many different areas. And, as we went along, we noticed how green everything was because of the rain.
“It was such a lovely walk.”
Stevenson had passed this way before. He made a similar walk across America in 2001 – a benefit mission for multiple sclerosis – and arrived in New York City four days before the Sept. 11 tragedy.
This time around, Stevenson left Seattle on April 26 to complete the final 3,000-mile leg to New York City. His wife, Loretta, drove a support van.
Despite heavy rain and nasty storms in Montana, Stevenson persevered. He averaged about 30 miles a day, walking 10-11 hours each day, and stayed in hotels and with friends along the way. He followed a northerly route, mostly on rural highways, before heading south in the Great Lakes Region.
For the most part, there were safe roads and cooperative weather. He often was well ahead of schedule.
Before reaching the Big Apple, Stevenson made several unplanned detours to help HD causes. One of those was a walkathon in New Haven, Conn.
Stevenson and his wife eventually will drive back to Auburn. He plans to visit family in Alabama, where he will participate in a benefit walk. He also hopes to log more miles in the Southwest before returning home.
He plans to be back in Auburn by the end of the month and complete the final miles of the 13,000-mile trek by circling Game Farm Park.
“I figured I started there, I might as well finish there,” he said.
Stevenson is a Christian author, former teacher, pastor, volunteer firefighter, truck driver and Marine. After retiring in 1994, he devoted his time to writing – and walking. He has logged more than 33,000 miles of walking for various charities since 1998.
He previously walked 8,000 miles around Game Farm Park for multiple sclerosis and climbed to the 12,300-foot level of Mount Rainier for the American Lung Association. He hiked 2,400 miles to all 88 counties in his native Ohio for the American Cancer Society, and walked a thousand miles over 12 of Washington’s highway mountain passes for Alzheimer’s.
He has walked as far as Tijuana, Mexico, and Anchorage, Alaska, for other causes.
Stevenson’s friend, Jack Meteyer, lost his mother, two brothers and a sister to HD.
The two met walking in Game Farm Park several years ago, and Meteyer asked Stevenson if he would walk tall and long for the cause.
Stevenson accepted the challenge.
“It’s all about raising public awareness for the disease,” Stevenson said. “It’s Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis all rolled into one.”
His goal reached, Stevenson soon will be home.
To celebrate Stevenson’s achievement, the public is invited to welcome the utral-walker home with a 6 p.m. program at Grace Community Church on Oct. 18.
For more information, visit pacinparson.org.
To contribute to HD Society of America, please call 206-464-9598, or send your check to: HD Society of America, (Code #070TH03), P.O. Box 33345, Seattle, WA 98133. Please indicate the contribution is for the “13,000-mile Park Walk.”
