By Staff
Fenn raising money for Heroes Campaign
By CLAUD HODGES
Senior Reporter
A Washington man plans to hike for more than 500 miles on the Appalachian Trail this spring to raise money for a worthy cause.
Tom’s Walk for the Red is an effort by Tom Fenn, 65, a Washington resident, to raise money for the Beaufort County chapter of the American Red Cross.
The campaign is a grassroots effort to raise awareness and support for the American Red Cross. Most of the money raised will go to the Red Cross’ disaster-services program. The remainder will go to its blood-services work, health and safety education programs and program for helping military personnel and their families.
Each “hero” is challenged to raise $1,000 for the campaign, which has a goal of raising $15,000, she said.
Fenn plans to begin his trek Friday at Front Royal, Va., and end it in late May in Irwin, Tenn.
Fenn asked family, friends and supporters to help him raise money by pledging a per-mile dollar amount or a lump-sum amount in support of his Appalachian Trail walk.
Fenn’s hike will cover approximately 650 miles. He will carry a 37-pound pack that will include food, water, a sleeping bag and a tent.
During his trek, Fenn plans to wake every day at daybreak, eat breakfast, walk until approximately 5 p.m., eat dinner and be in his sleeping bag by dark.
After every five or six days on the trail, Fenn said, he will stop at a motel or hostel to eat, shower, wash clothes, resupply and sleep.
In 2006, he walked part of the trail. On that trek, he started at Front Royal and walked northward to Kent, Conn.
One end of the trail is at Katahdin, Maine, and the other end is at Springer Mountain, Ga. The trail is 2,175 miles long.
Beautiful sights along the trail are abundant and views from the tops of mountains are breath-taking, he said.
Fenn said his desire to walk the trail is partly a product of his admiration of a Ralph Waldo Emerson passage: “In the woods, too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods is perpetual youth.”
Fenn asks that people who would like to donate to the Heroes Campaign to contact the Beaufort County Red Cross chapter at (252) 946-4110.