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Local teacher, cop to walk 3,000 miles across USA for veterans

(WISH Photo)

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A local teacher and IMPD detective are getting ready to embark on a walk that will take them more than 3,000 miles across the country.

One step at a time, they’ll be raising money for Helping Hands for Freedom. HHFF is an organization that supports the families of veterans. They’re calling the walk Route for the Brave. It begins on April 21, and the pair expects to wrap up on Sept. 3.

Rain, shine or gusty winds, the two are committed.

“This is funny because we are facing west. This is the whole way I’ll be walking across America, with this kind of wind,” said Beech Grove Middle School math teacher Kevin Winton.

“In the summer I hit it pretty hard with 1,000 miles, 30 miles per day some days,” Winton said as he laced up his sneakers for more training. “Some days 20 [miles]. I try to work out, where you would walk maybe 30 miles a day on a Wednesday and buffer that with 20 miles either day of it.”

He’s walking the Route for the Brave with his buddy, IMPD Detective David Roth. Roth is also on the Helping Hands for Freedom Board. The organization’s four month walk starts in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and will go across the US along Route 40 to San Francisco.

“I would just be able to walk everybody and meet these great soldiers and family members across this great country. We’re excited,” Roth said.

There’s purpose, too. They hope to build a retreat house with up to seven family suites and a post traumatic stress disorder center.

“[It] would have a place for counseling, for PTSD, financial counseling, family counseling; whatever would be needed by that individual family,” said Winton.

The center would cost $3.3 million. So far, they’ve raised $600,000.

“I don’t say hopefully. I don’t say what if we don’t. There is no no. We are going to raise the money,” Roth said.

Any extra money raised will go to covering operating expenses of the retreat house. If you would like to help out, or for more information, click here.