Past Half-Way Mark

Posted on August 16, 2010 by adambrok

I am overjoyed to be writing to you from just one days walk outside of Harrisburg. It’s been two weeks and a day(13 days of actual walking) and over 240 miles since I’ve left Pittsburgh. In that time I’ve met so many wonderful people and had so many wonderful expreiences that it would be impossible to describe them all. I have been overwhelmed my generousity and support I have received from absolutely everyone I have encountered. Every single encounter I’ve had has been so uplifting I feel more and more inspired with each passing day.

The kindness and goodness of all the people I’ve been meeting is something I want to stress because I feel that too often all we hear about on the news (or at least most of what we hear) is all the bad things that are going on in the world. We have two wars going, we are dealing with the greatest environmental diaster possibly ever, and every day people around the countrty are getting shot and robbed. We hear about tragedies like these on a daily basis. What we don’t hear about enough are 8-10 people who voluteer at the local food pantry in a rural central PA town, people that probably are all that more well off than the people they are helping. We don’t hear about the people that reach into their pockets and pull out the few bucks they have to offer to a kid with a huge backpack and tired legs. And we don’t hear about the people who open their hearts and homes to a complete stranger just out of the goodness of their heart. We don’t hear about these things but they happen everyday, a lot more than one might think after having watched the news. I know because I’ve seen it and experienced it. I would not be hear right now writing this if not for the incredible kindness of others. The world is filled with good people doing good things. Don’t let the news depress you. Yes there’s some terrible things that happen but there is so much more good that are happening.

As I have been walking I have been filled with so much hope and so much optimism through each and every encounter I’ve had. Just know that there is a lot more good than bad out there and there are a lot of people working really hard to make things even better.

Thank you all for your continued support and hopefully I’ll be able to get out updates a little more regularly over the last half of my walk.

Adam

About adambrok

My name is Adam Brok. I am a recent graduate of DePauw University, a small liberal arts school in Greencastle, IN, where I was a Philosophy major and Jewish Studies minor. I am also a proud Pittsburgher. I come from a family and environment where helping people in need was just what you did. If you came across a friend, neighbor, or even a complete stranger that was in need of help, you stopped and did what you could to help. It was just as simple as that. As I grew and moved on to college I continued to help where I could. I volunteered as a student friend at a local elementary school where I served as a mentor and tutor to a kindergartner named Jordan and worked with a local church to help run their non-food pantry (where we supplied members of the community on food stamps with essentials like soap, toothpaste, detergent, etc, that cannot be purchased with food stamps). During the summers after my sophomore and junior years respectfully, I volunteered at the University of Pittsburgh Legal Clinic and The Pittsburgh Refugee and Immigration Assistance Center. I also was fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend the spring semester of my junior year in Philadelphia where I was a social work/legal intern in the Juvenile Special Defense Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia. It was during this semester in Philadelphia that I became really passionate about the issues of hunger and homelessness. It was impossible to walk around downtown Philly for more than ten minutes without seeing someone laying on the sidewalk or sitting in dirty clothes on a park bench asking for food and money. It was a scene I just couldn't get comfortable with seeing. Here I was a young college student without much money of my own, yet I had an apartment I slept in each night and food to wake up to each morning. Why should I be so fortunate and not the guy that slept on the sewer grate every night down the block from my bare, but warm apartment. That is when I decided that I needed to something, something much more and much greater than what I had done in the past. Being an avid exerciser and enjoying taking on physical challenges, I decided that I would walk from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to raise money and awareness for the hungry and homeless.
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2 Responses to Past Half-Way Mark

  1. kelli lawton says:
    August 16, 2010 at 4:28 am

    Hey adam you might not remember me we went to school together I saw this link on someone’s facebook and decided to check it out, and in glad I did. I think what you are doing is amazing, a lot of kids our age don’t have the heart or passion you have to do something so good for a great cause. Just wanted to let wish you the best of luck on your amazing journey.

    Reply
    • adambrok says:
      August 19, 2010 at 12:53 am

      Kelli, of course I remember you. Thank you so much for your words of support and encouragement. I hope you’re doing well. It was great hearing from you.

      Adam

      Reply

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