Woman Walks Across America So People Will "Wake Up"
Sheryl Lynn's Walking With America Journey Is Scheduled To Begin On April 1st From Key West, From Where She Will Hope To Join Like-Minded People On A Mission To Enjoy The Outdoors
Some people get in the car and drive thousands of miles. Some people sell their homes, pack everything inside an RV and embrace the mobile lifestyle. And some people walk. Meet Sheryl Lynn. Lynn loves to walk. "It's a chance to dream and feel joy," she says. She loves walking so much that she is planning a walk that will last 6 months called Walking With America. In more measurable terms, the trip is a total of 3,805 miles (interesting tidbit: that’s 7,610,000 steps!) starting from Key West, Florida on April 1st and ending in San Francisco on October 1st.
There are many reasons why she is walking. But the essential reason is to make people happy. "I want to make connections throughout the country and inspire people to get outside and walk!" Lynn says. “The walk is simply doing what I love, so if I do more of it, likely many great things will happen. The premise is simple: alter the way that you interact with the people around you, and in turn, their lives will experience their own unique transformation.” She says that the idea came to her after spending long hours at her job. After working in front of a computer all day, she went home and got in front of a screen and started flipping through more news articles. At that moment, she realized she was completely exhausted and all the screens were making it worse, as well as the constant banter of negative news in the world. “Suddenly, it felt as though the road was calling me to set these troubles aside for a while and just spend time living,” she writes on her website. And then she started to think why not walk across America. So that’s what she plans to do.
On her website, she lists several sobering statistics to support her cause. Numbers that show how many people are abused per minute (20), suicide rates among different age groups and more. Other statistics that are less extreme, but equally concerning are about how much time people spend outside. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American spends 93% of their life indoors. 87% inside and 6% of their life in automobiles. With these thoughts in mind, Lynn wants to walk to encourage others to spend time outside. She wants people to join her. "I have stops on along the way where we are setting up events for people to join us," she says.
Interestingly, Lynn is not a professional walker. "I never trained, though I've done a few longer trips like bike around Lake Tahoe," she says, "I never really played sports and I'm a bit overweight. But walking gives me peace and quietness." She saw that her walk across America feels right and loves that it is "kind of epic and kind of out there." She attributes her love of walking to being born and raised in Wisconsin. "We camped all the time and always went hiking," she recalls. "Then I moved to the city and realized there are so many people that may like hiking and things like that, but never had had the chance to do it."
As a cornerstone of the WWA campaign is a healthy individual and active lifestyle. It's no secret exercise establishes physical well-being, greater community involvement, and am overall happier life. Simpy walking is one of the exercises that has been well-researched and documented by numerous doctors and health professionals. Heidi Simon, Partnerships & Communications Director at AmericaWalks.org, explains benefits of walking as: “Improving individual health and wellness, strengthening economies, and providing opportunities to access school, work, and play. It's also a great way to connect with friends and families, explore your community, and have fun while staying physically active.” Inner body advantages include increased circulation, lower cholesterol, sharper mental alertness, and improved mood.
Though her major stops and her route is planned, she is taking a very organic approach to the journey. She calls for help finding hosts to help her shower and refresh, sponsors for equipment she will take on her journey, as well as suggestions or advice to help her along the way. “Wouldn’t it be cool if an RVer or someone like that would tag along with me for awhile? I just love all the possibilities,” she says. She also asks for monetary donations on her GoFundMe page, which she we use to directly give to people on her journey. “I want people to share so I can share with everyone,” she says.
“Everyone has seen Forest Gump, right?” she laughs, “And I know this is a Forest Gump-esque. So we decided to add a little ode to Forest in our campaign signs.” The signs, which are a bright yellow with a map of the US with a lady in front, also has a smiley face, like in the movie, the only difference is with Lynn’s sign the smiley has hearts for eyes.
So how can people help on her journey? Besides monetary and sponsorships, she would like people to follow her Instagram, @WalkingWithAmerica, and get out and walk! She is going to put a tracker on her website that will allow people to come join her for “Happy Hour.” Her happy hour will be the end of her walk everyday, in which she plans to settle down with new friends she meets and spend her rest time getting to know strangers. She hopes this will help galvanize her goal of making others happy. One step at a time.
Andrew Malo
A graduate of Northeastern Illinois University in Education, Andrew has taught for the past decade in Chicago, New Mexico, and Japan. He enjoys tinkering with trucks and motorcycles, woodworking, reading and computer programming.
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Walking With America, initiated by Sheryl Lynn, who wants to walk and walk and walk and know that the universe will bring together all the resources to help her make a powerful impact on the world. Donations accepted through GoFundMe.