He started his research eight years ago. He ran three times a day until he retired, then upped his training. He ordered a stroller in 2012, to carry a necessaries including a tent, a GPS tracking device, water, food and maps of states across the country.
Alan Barlow is running 3,200 miles in five months, raising $15,000 for a food pantry run by St. Paul’s Church in Concord, which operates on a minimum $20,000 budget each year. He started one week ago at the Pacific Ocean, on Heceta Beach in Oregon, and will finish his run at Rye Beach in New Hampshire. He and his family are long-time volunteers at the food pantry. From a story in the Concord Monitor:
“We’ve been doing that as a family for – I don’t know how many years,” Diane Barlow said. “We did it when the kids were little, and they were rolling cans on the floor and playing.”
The patrons of the food pantry rely on the kindness of strangers to make ends meet, Barlow said. So when he wanted to connect his run to something bigger than himself, he immediately thought of those years of Sundays.
“Let’s face it, Concord’s a pretty nice community to grow up in and to live in,” Barlow said. “You don’t see a lot of homelessness. Generally it’s not right there in your face. Yet the amount of food that’s going off the shelf to help people who are struggling to get by, you know the needs are there.”
One week in, Barlow’s reached more than 10 percent of his goal. Follow his blog here.
Posted by Cara Ellen Modisett
