PANAMA CITY BEACH — A Troy University fraternity is carrying on the tradition of leaving no man behind as 19 brothers spent Spring Break trekking 128.3 miles to raise funds and awareness for wounded warriors.
Many tired feet crossed over the Holmes County line from Alabama on Sunday as the Alpha Tau Omega Hard Walk 2015 group passed through on a five-day walk from Troy, Ala. to Panama City Beach. They arrived Wednesday. The brothers hit Bonifay for a scheduled overnight stop at First Baptist Church for dinner and some much-needed rest before continuing early Monday morning.
“The last two years, we’ve tried to focus the event more on wounded warriors,” said Logan Wagner, director of Walk Hard 2015. “It’s a rough march basically.”
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Wagner said the fraternity turned the walk into its annual philanthropy project after Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) brothers Kyle Crabtree and Austin Bivins spotted something unusual while en route to Panama City Beach for Spring Break several years ago.
“They saw a guy on the side of the road wearing a Superman costume carrying the American flag,” Wagner said. “They thought it was cool and it could turn into a philanthropy event.”
The first event in 2010 was small with two guys walking to support juvenile diabetes. From there, the walk grew a little each year as more brothers volunteered to spend Spring Break making the long walk to support Special Olympics and Wounded Warrior Project.
ATO turned its attention this year to localizing money raised by allocating it all to Jeep Sullivan’s Wounded Warrior Outdoor Adventures, a Bonifay-based nonprofit organization offering outdoor excursions to wounded warriors, veterans, and first responders. Its clients take refuge in hunting, fishing, airboat tours and wildlife education with creative accommodations made for all types of disability.
Each of the ATO brothers walking donated some of their own money to the cause before lacing up their tennis shoes to walk just over 128 miles from Troy to Panama City Beach. Others can make donations through GoFundMe on the Alpha Tau Omega: Walk Hard 2015 page.
As one would imagine, walking 128 miles is no easy task. The group breaks the walk down to 20-25 mile increments over a five-day period.
“It’s a big commitment,” said ATO brother Taylor Sims, 19, as he hiked down the side of U.S. 79 on Sunday.
Sims said walking 10 hours a day is as much a mental workout as it is physical. He said it helps to listen to music or talk to others. Most important, he’s had to walk at his own pace to not lose steam as he marched through miles of back and foot pain while wearing a heavy water pack.
“You got to keep pushing,” he said. “I know physically I can make it, but I’ve just got to mentally stay in it.”
ATO was joined on parts of the journey by some of the clients that benefit from Sullivan’s organization.
Bobby Dove, 28, is one of the wounded warriors who’s been hunting and fishing with Jeep Sullivan’s Wounded Warrior Outdoor Adventures after his life was changed in 2012 on an Army combat patrol in Afghanistan.
“I was on a dirt bike and drove over a pressure plate IED, and it took off my right leg and I lost part of my right arm,” Dove said. Dove spent seven months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. before returning to duty at Eglin Air Force Base.
The Niceville resident linked up with Sullivan a year and a half ago to again enjoy some of the things he did before becoming an amputee and helps the organization further its mission now that he’s out of the Army.
“He’s a really good guy, and I do this to benefit him,” Dove said of Sullivan.
Jeep Sullivan, formerly the assistant pastor of First Baptist Church in Bonifay, started the Wounded Warrior organization and ministry three years ago, taking inspiration from his father-in-law Wayne Mitchell of Chipley, who lost a leg in Vietnam and was awarded three Purple Hearts.
“We wanted to honor our soldiers,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan started by reaching out to warriors wounded in Guadalcanal, WWII, Vietnam, Korea and then to younger veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. He gained more traction with the organization after Sullivan met and started receiving help from Mark McDuffie, owner of Wounded Warrior Fishing.
Since, the combined group has been on hunting and inland fishing excursions all over the country. Sullivan attributes much of his organization’s progress over the past year to publicity and funding brought in by the ATO Hard Walk.
Sullivan said the fraternity raised $17,000 for his warriors through last year’s Hard Walk project and feels honored ATO chose to benefit his warriors again this year. The Hard Walk will end on Wednesday at Pier Park Boardwalk in Panama City Beach.
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“They’re a bunch of good guys,” Sullivan said. “They study hard, they make good grades and they’re going to be leaders.”
Sullivan got a little teary-eyed describing how it makes him feel to watch two unique brotherhoods – a college fraternity and his wounded warriors – come together to help touch the lives of other warriors and first responders injured in the line of duty.
“It’s an honor just to be with these guys. They’re what true America is all about,” Sullivan said. “It’s always about taking care of somebody else. That’s what made America great.”