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| John Elsner photo |
| Retired pastor Don Stevenson, center, passed through Cedarburg last week during his walk across America to raise awareness and funds for the fight against Huntington's disease. With him are his wife, Loretta, and Tom Mueller of Oconomowoc, secretary on the Board for the Huntington's Disease Society of America's Wisconsin chapter. |
by Reed Graf
News Graphic Correspondent
Cedarburg -- They call him the "pacin' parson." This retired pastor's goal is to raise awareness in America of Huntngton's disease, and he's doing exactly that by walking from coast to coast across America to spread the good word about this terribly bad disease.
It's yet another walk of love for 72-year-old ultra-walker Don Stevenson of Auburn, Wash., who passed through Cedarburg last week on his Seattle-to-New York trek, which he hopes will raise another $20,000 by the time he arrives at the Empire State Building in early September.
He left Seattle in January of 2007 and so far has raised more than $10,000 for the Huntington's Disease
In Cedarburg he and his wife spent the night at the home of John Elsner, a board member of the local chapter of the HDSA.
Stevenson averages about 180 miles a week - 30 miles a day - resting only on Sundays, which one would expect from a man of the cloth.
Stevenson even has a letter from President Bush thanking him for his charitable efforts. Stevenson and Loretta, his wife of 25 years, have made serving those who cannot serve themselves their mission.
Don Stevenson's walking for HD is dedicated to his dear friend, Jack Meteyer, whose mother and three siblings died with Huntington's Disease, a crippling inherited neurological disorder that starts in the brain and eventually spreads to all body systems. It disables the abilities to retrieve memory, to reason, and to arrange thoughts and can take up to twenty years before its symptoms begin to show.
"It's all worth it," he said, "when somedody's on a corner looking at me. They say 'I've been waiting for you, I want to thank you for what you're doing.' They usually know someone with the disease as I do, and it seems to mean a lot to them that somebody's out there trying to do something about it."
HD is not the only cause that has had this parson pacing. A decade ago in 1998 he walked 3,000 miles from Seattle to Portland, Maine, for Alzheimer's Disease; in 2000 he walked 4,000 miles from Tijuana, Mexico to Anchorage, Alaska, for multiple sclerosis; four years ago at age 68 he climbed to the 12,300 foot level of Mount Rainier for the American Lung Association; and two years ago he trekked 2,400 miles to all 88 counties in Ohio (where he pastored his first church) for the American Cancer Society.
"I guess I have a lot of compassion for people," Stevenson said. "I don't like to see them suffer."
And people along the way have had compassion for him as well. He's been handed sacks of energy bars,
During his daily runs he prays, enjoys seeing nature in all its glory in different seasons, picks up babies and gets ideas for books he wants to write.
How does he want to be remembered?
"I hope people would remember me as someone who had love for everyone and who treated everyone, regardless of social or financial status, with dignity and respect."
"We are all created in the image of God," he said, "even the Skid Row bum. The image is there in all of us, but in some it just has a harder time getting seen. God has blessed me with good health, and out of gratitude I've tried to share that blessing with others who are less fortunate.
"I walk for those who cannot walk, I give love and support to those who truly need and appreciate it."