Posted: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 12:13 pm
By MICHAEL MILLER, Staff Writer
To raise money for veterans, a math teacher and a police officer from Indianapolis plan to take a walk tomorrow in Atlantic City – a long walk.
The two plan to travel 3,091 miles from America's Playground to San Francisco, a journey that is expected to take more than four months.
David Roth, 47, and Kevin Winton, 50, have been training for the trip for more than a year.
They plan to travel 30 miles per day, six days per week. That is a distance longer than a marathon every day.
"I did more than 1,000 miles last summer. But any kind of injury is a concern," Winton said.
They will be joined along the way by family, friends and other members of the charity, Helping Hands for Freedom, a 501c3 nonprofit based in Phoenix. The group wants to raise $3 million to build and staff a retreat for the families of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Charity spokesman Paul Gable said Roth came up with the fundraising idea after his stepson returned from a fifth military deployment.
"He wanted to do something big for veterans. What's bigger than walking across America to build a PTSD center?" Gable said.
The retreat, called a house of healing, would be big enough for six families and would offer counseling or therapy. The charity is looking at locations in Indianapolis, Frankfort, Ky., and Phoenix.
Roth, a police detective in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and Winton, a middle school math teacher, will embark at 5:30 a.m. Thursday from the Albany Avenue beach, heading west up the Black Horse Pike.
"It's 30 miles 6 days per week. I don't know how much you can prepare for that," Gable said. "There will be unknowns that we can't prepare for. That's to be expected."
The duo will stick to historic U.S. 40 during their trip, which they're calling the Route for the Brave.
"David had this idea about two years ago. I thought it was a stupid idea," Winton said. "But I also thought it would be an opportunity to do something that would last a long time. You don't have many opportunities to have a long-lasting impact on people's lives."
So Winton decided to join him.
The two hope their efforts will inspire people to donate to their cause. They have set up fundraisers through their website (helpinghandsforfreedom.org). They plan to post their observations and thoughts along the way to followers on social media.
Roth said he knows the road ahead will be difficult. But he feels inspired by the sacrifices of veterans, he said.
"There is going to be a time where I'm sure there will be some impassable points. But we'll find a way around them," he said. "We're going to make it to San Francisco."
Learn more about the Route for the Brave