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11-year old walks from Florida to Atlanta for homeless

 
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11/17/2008 06:33 PM
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11-year old walks from Florida to Atlanta for homeless
11-year old walks from Florida to Atlanta for homeless
He’s raising money for a Habitat house
By BEN SMITH

Monday, November 17, 2008

A boy from Florida walked 279 miles to rally support for homeless children.

Yes, really.

Enlarge this image


Courtesy of Laurie Bonner

Zach Bonner, 11, finishes his 279 mile walk from Tallahassee to Atlanta to rally support for homeless children by dashing up the steps of the Georgia state Capitol Rocky-Balboa style.Enlarge this image


Courtesy of Laurie Bonner

Supporters follow Zach Bonner from Turner Field to the Georgia state Capitol.• Zach Bonner's story on YouTube
• Do good, help others

Recent headlines:


11-year old walks from Florida to Atlanta for homeless
Runoffs set for Dec. 2; some early voting starts Monday
Early voting starts for Senate runoff, other offices
• Metro and state news Zach Bonner finished his Tallahassee-to-Atlanta trek Monday morning with a Rocky Balboa-style dash up the steps of the Georgia Capitol. He then pumped both fists in the air.

“I feel really excited to know that I’ve finished,” said Zach.

The Tampa boy wasn’t only celebrating the end of a monthlong journey. Monday was also Zach’s 11th birthday.

Two years ago, a documentary about a woman who walked 25,000 miles to promote her cause so captivated Zach that he decided he wanted to do his own walk. The documentary was about Mildred Norman, the “Peace Pilgrim” who spent 28 years, until her death in 1981, on foot calling for the end of war.

Zach had his own cause. Three years ago, he had started providing backpacks filled with supplies to homeless people. His charitable work began in 2004, at age 7, when he gathered materials for people put out of their homes by Hurricane Charley.

As an online elementary school student, it was possible for Zach to take weeks away from home to make the trek completed Monday. The Florida Virtual Academy student could study during the summer and put in seven days a week before the journey’s start and not fall behind.

Zach took his first cross-state walk for homeless children a year ago, after Congress designated November as National Homeless Youth Awareness Month. He walked from Tampa to the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee.

Last month, Zach launched his second journey where his first had ended. He walked from Tallahassee to the Georgia state line. Zach walked to Thomasville, to Albany and Cordele, keeping a safe distance from the cars and trucks that blew dust and gusts of wind around him. His trip took him around Macon and up U.S 41 through Griffin and Lovejoy.

Zach’s mom and supporters alternated between walking with the boy and driving the donated recreational vehicle where he slept each night. The child homeless advocate walked about 11 to 13 miles each day. Zach’s mother, Laurie, said he burned through three pairs of sneakers along the way.

Laurie Bonner said helping her son complete the journey was “awesome … most days.”

“I think it’s just something in him. I think he was just born with it,” Laurie Bonner said. “Different people have different talents, and I think this [helping others] is just his talent.”

Besides raising public awareness about homelessness, Zach has raised more than $7,000 in walk pledges toward his goal of $35,000 to help build a Habitat for Humanity house for a homeless Macon area family. (To donate, go to www.littleredwagonfoundation.com.)

“A lot of people look at it as too big of a problem to solve, but I think if we just take one kid at a time, and help just one kid at a time, we can solve the problem,” Zach said. “We hope other people will see my walk and they’ll want to help with their own community.”





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