http://www.aolnews.com/philanthropy/nc/article/zach-bonner-begins-2500-mile-walk/962344?icid=main|main|dl1|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fphilanthropy%2Fnc%2Farticle%2Fzach-bonner-begins-2500-mile-walk%2F962344
March 23) -- Twelve-year-old philanthropist Zach Bonner began a nearly 2,500-mile "March Across America" today to bring attention to the plight of 1.3 million homeless kids in this country.Zach, who has received the U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award, kicked off his walk this morning near his hometown of Tampa, Fla., and will end his journey in Los Angeles in September.
“ ‘March Across America,’ I hope, will give voice to the millions of kids that do not have one,” Zach said before setting off on his coast-to-coast journey. “If it only helps one child, it will be completely worth it.”
Philanthropy became the focus of Zach's life when he was just 6. After Hurricane Charley hit Tampa in 2004, Zach delivered water and supplies to his stricken neighbors using his little red wagon. The next year he founded the nonprofit Little Red Wagon Foundation to help distressed and underprivileged kids and to encourage youth to make a difference in their own neighborhoods.
In fall 2007, Zach began a 1,225-mile-long “My House to the White House” walk on behalf of homeless youth in America by walking from Tampa to Tallahassee. The next fall he continued the journey by walking from Tallahassee to Atlanta and, in summer 2009, completed the effort by walking from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., where he met with U.S. senators and representatives.
As he walks across the country this spring and summer, Zach will take part in smaller projects and events with homeless shelters, churches and other groups along his 2,478-mile route.
For the next six months, home for Zach and his mom, Laurie Bonner, will be an RV on loan for the march by Lazydays RV dealership in Tampa. Zach's sister, Kelley, will join him for the first six weeks of the walk, and brother Matt will catch up with them later in the summer. Zach will walk about five hours a day, seven days a week at a pace of about 3 miles per hour. That means he'll cover 13 to 15 miles a day.
"You're just tired, you're exhausted, but you feel a sense of accomplishment that you've made it through the day," Zach said by phone last week from his home in Tampa.
Epsom salt soaks in the evening help, as do multiple pairs of sneakers. Zach says in all his walks, he has only got one blister.
He didn't do any real training for the 178-day cross-country walk. "Really, no matter how much you do, nothing can prepare you," Zach said.
While his mom was busy packing the RV's storage spaces with food and clothing, Zach finished up some online schoolwork (he home-schools) and made sure to bring his Xbox, a soccer ball and a "jar or two of Nutella."
Laurie Bonner, on the other hand, sounded slightly more harried as she loaded an RV and prepared to lock her house up for six months.
"He's so calm and very mature," Laurie said about her son. "He doesn't really worry too much."
Zach's mom typically walks with him in the mornings, and one of his siblings joins him in the afternoon. "They can only make it so far before they start arguing," Laurie said.
Evenings are spent doing laundry ("We're really excited when the campground has a laundry") and grocery shopping.
"You don't know how much you appreciate the things you have in your house," she said.
It's hard work, but spending days on end walking, in the service of others, has become a way of life for the Bonners.
"When I really think about it, I'm really proud of him and what he's done," Laurie said. "But on a day-to-day basis, it doesn't seem abnormal at all. It's just who Zach is."
For each of his walks, Zach has had the use of an RV from Lazydays, made possible by the dealership's employee foundation.
Kristy Rosier, finance administrator at Lazydays and board member of its foundation, met Zach at an awards ceremony sponsored by a local public television station when he was 8. A few weeks later, the second-grader e-mailed Lazydays asking to borrow an RV.
"He blew us away, quite frankly," Rosier said by phone. "He got a standing ovation the first time he addressed the whole company."
Zach set off at 10 a.m. this morning from the Lazydays RV Campground, in Seffner, Fla., with friends, supporters and sponsors walking with him for the ceremonial first mile. He then stopped to speak to a group of children at nearby First Missionary Baptist Church.
In support of the “March Across America,” the Office Depot Foundation will donate 2,478 backpacks -- one for every mile that Zach walks -- to the Little Red Wagon Foundation to help homeless children succeed in school.
“March Across America” is sponsored by AOL/KOL, Lazydays RV and Lazydays Employee Foundation, Little Red Wagon Foundation, Office Depot Foundation, PacSun, Philanthropy Project, and Variety: The Children’s Charity of Southern California, with additional support by Build-A-Bear Workshop, Caspers Company McDonald’s, K12 and Outback Steakhouse/Carrabba’s.
Additionally, Philanthropy Project, in association with Anonymous Content, is producing a feature-length motion picture, "Little Red Wagon," inspired by Zach’s life story. The film is scheduled to begin principal photography May 26 in South Carolina.
