A Florida man strolled through Platte County last week and left with a new appreciation for Dearborn.
Submitted photo
Kenneth Brock and his service dog, Pam, stopped in Platte County last week on his journey from Florida to Idaho as he raises money for the Wounded Warrior Project.
Kenneth Brock’s journey on foot from Keystone Heights, Fla. to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, started on Feb. 1 with his service dog, Pam.
A U.S. Army veteran, Brock served from 1984 to 1994. He is making the trek to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project and his journey of 2,650 miles had him on Interurban Road near Camden Point on Tuesday, April 9, heading to Dearborn.
A Facebook post spread the word and the community quickly banded together to help this stranger. He got a meal paid for at Tanner’s in Platte City and a good samaritan set him up with a room at Ramada Inn in Platte City, which was quickly paid for by someone who saw the social media post.
“It’s as if I was sitting with a bunch of family,” Brock wrote on his Facebook page. “They just made me feel so welcome. This little town of Dearborn came together to greet me and treat me as if I was one of their own and it was so heartwarming. No other town that I have ever come across during this journey has come together as this little town of Dearborn, Missouri.”
He and Pam generally traverse 20 miles or so per day and his plan originally was to set up a tent and sleep somewhere in Dearborn until the social media posted helped him.
“I got a tent folded up in the bottom of the stroller,” he said. “I rough it and then every once in a while we’ll stay in a hotel and do laundry and stuff like that.”
He didn’t have to ‘rough’ it in Platte County. He got a king size bed suite with a Jacuzzi tub in Platte City.
His journey on Wednesday, April 10 started back out at the ballpark in Dearborn and when he arrived he was met by a group of students in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He had an opportunity to talk to them about his reason behind the walk before trekking north to St. Joseph.
The St. Joseph Police Department welcomed him when he arrived and got him set up with a hotel for another night and a meal at Boudreaux, the popular Cajun restaurant downtown.
Weather issues — a rapid cold snap last Thursday — and flooding issues changed his journey a bit toward Omaha, Neb., making him go across Highway 36 into Kansas and then north to reach Nebraska.
Along he way, he got set up with a place to sleep with heat and a meal in Troy, Kan. The Brown County (Kan.) Sheriff’s Department would later hook him up with a room and an employee at a grocery store in Sabetha, Kan., gave him a $100 gift card to buy supplies.
As of Tuesday, April 16, Brock had entered Nebraska. He chronicles his journey and the people and places he sees on his Facebook page.
What has been the most memorable part of the trip for Brock so far? “There is still good in this world,” he said.
Pam, who turned 4 on Monday, April 15, played a big part in Brock making this nationwide voyage.
At one point in his life, Brock weighed more than 300 pounds and suffered from major post-traumatic stress disorder and his psychiatrist at the VA suggested a service dog.
The dog helped him ‘come out of his shell’ and got him thinking of ways to give back.
“I chose Wound Warriors because of the post 9/11 soldiers who joined and I wanted to do something for them, to get the word out more,” he said. “And come through areas that don’t necessarily get the attention. Walk through and not go by Interstate. Take back roads, scenic highways, meet people of the back roads of what makes America tick.”
His goal is to arrive in Idaho by Independence Day to take part in the parade that day. Why Idaho? His two children and six grandchildren reside there.
“In the beginning they said ‘dad you’re nuts’ or ‘you’re insane,’” Brock recalled. “Now I’ve come this far and they are blown away. They’re on Facebook forwarding it to all their friends going ‘look at my dad’”
He has raised more than $4,000 but that is very short of his $50,000 goal.
For more information on Brock’s mission or to help donate to the Wounded Warrior Project, visit https://fundraise.woundedwarriorproject.org/rtt/Fundraising/individual/Walk-from-Keystone-Heights-fl-to-Coeur-dAlene-ID1
Checks can be mailed to Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758525, Topeka, KS 66675-8525. Attn: Community Fundraising and ID P268507.