Don Stevenson came home Friday to finish what he had started.
Auburn’s 72-year-old ultra-walker completed the final five-mile leg of his 13,000-mile awareness and fundraising walk to fight Huntington’s disease, a progressively degenerative brain disorder.
Stevenson – a former teacher, pastor, volunteer firefighter, truck driver and Marine – returned to his familiar Game Farm Park walking trail to complete the last steps in his nearly five-month odyssey.
He was congratulated by family and friends as he logged the final miles in drizzle and under gray skies.
“It feels great,” Stevenson said. “It’s been a good walk and I met a lot of interesting people.”
Stevenson, known as the “Pacin’ Parson,” reached New York City and the Huntington’s Disease Society of America headquarters on Sept. 15. His walk raised $25,000 for the HDSA. A benefit concert in Greenwich Village on Sept. 14 raised $100,000 for the cause.
He spent time visiting patients at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center’s Huntington’s Disease Unit in New York City.
“It was so heart wrenching to see the (patients),” Stevenson recalled. “I would do speeches for them, but I didn’t know what to say. I just old them that I loved them.”
Throughout the journey – which began from the Space Needle on April 26 – Stevenson met interesting people and those afflicted with the disease. He even detoured to cities to conduct awareness walks and talks.
“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. There was a lot of rain, which made it so enjoyable.
“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.
Despite some 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.
His wife, Loretta, drove a support van.
After retiring in 1994, Stevenson 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.
Will he do a similar walk soon?
“If I knew it would cure HD or any other disease, I would crawl across America without hesitation, if that’s what it takes,” Stevenson said.
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PUBLIC IS INVITED
To celebrate Don Stevenson’s achievement, the public is invited to an Oct. 18 gathering at Grace Community Church, 1320 Auburn Way S. The program, presented by pacinparson.org and the Auburn Noon Lions Club, will run from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and will include door prizes and music.
For more information, visit pacinparson.org.
