Kittitas County Daily Record, 7/11/07

Walking the Walk

By Don Gronning

Don Stevenson of Auburn has walked about 4,300 miles to raise money for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. He walked from Yakima to Ellensburg yesterday and will walk to Cle Elum today.

“This is about the hottest it has been,” said Stevenson as he walked along Main Street through Ellensburg about 4:30 p.m. in the 95-degree heat. He walks about 30 miles a day, 180 miles a week.

Stevenson, 71, said his goal is to walk 10,000 miles. He tries to get a penny a mile from sponsors and has raised more than $6,000 so far. He is on track to reach the 5,000 mile mark Aug. 3.

His goal, in addition to raising money, is to raise awareness of Huntington’s.

“It’s like the worst of Alzheimer’s, MS and Parkinson’s disease in one,” he said. Symptoms vary but include problems with cognitive abilities, depression and disruptions of the central nervous system, according to the Medical College of Wisconsin Web site.

Huntington’s disease affects about 30,000 people in the U.S. The famous folk singer Woody Guthrie dies of the disease.

Stevenson started walking in January, in a park by his house. He became involved in walking for Huntington’s disease after a friend, [Jack Meteyer] lost several family members to the disease.

[Meteyer] found out as an adult that he was adopted. He sought out his birth parents and it was then he learned of the Huntington’s disease in the family. It is an inherited disease, with a 50 percent chance of passing it on to offspring, said Stevenson.

[Meteyer] escaped the disease. Since Huntington’s does not skip generations, the story has a good ending, as he didn’t pass it on to his children.

But it did inspire Stevenson, a retired minister and truck driver, to walk. He has walked thousands of miles for other causes. In 1998 he walked from Seattle to Portland, Maine to raise money for Alzheimer’s.

[In 2000] he walked from Tijuana, Mexico to Anchorage, Alaska to raise money for multiple sclerosis. He has walked blindfolded across the Cascade Mountain Range to raise money for a foundation started for a woman who was blinded in a car wreck. Last year he walked 2,400 miles for the American Cancer Society.

“I got started on my first walk after my father-in-law died of Alzheimer’s,” he said. He estimates he has walked more than 30,000 miles for various causes. The money he has raised has been appreciated, but there is another reason he walks.