by
Shane Johnson is walking 22 miles a day from
Orlando to California, distributing 10,000 hygiene kits to homeless
veterans along the way.
PANAMA CITY — While homeless veterans received help during the 10th Annual Stand Down, several blocks away, a former Marine was inspiring other local homeless people.
Shane Johnson, who is hiking from Orlando to Camp Pendleton in California, stopped at the Panama City Rescue Mission on Thursday to encourage people to never give up and pick themselves up by the bootstraps. Johnson started the almost 3,000-mile trip last week and plans to be in California by November. He undertook a similar but shorter trek last year.
“Right now I’m hiking across America to raise awareness for homelessness and homeless veterans,” said Johnson, who at one time was homeless himself. “Seven years ago, around this time, I lost everything. I lost my businesses, I lost my home. ... Once I lost everything, one thing I remembered is to never quit, to never stop, to never blame the system.”
Johnson encouraged the dozen or so in the audience to take responsibility for themselves, make a move to better their lives and rely on their minds, “the most powerful thing they have.” During Johnson’s trek, which is being captured by a videographer, he has made time to camp and run his mortgage business while on the road.
Similar to his last hike, a three-week trip from Orlando to Panama City, Johnson is walking 22 miles a day in reference to estimated daily veteran suicide rates. This time, though, he’s distributing 10,000 hygiene kits to homeless veterans, which were provided by the global health nonprofit Clean the World.
Johnson plans to “speak to over 20 different homeless shelters and missions, and hopefully inspire people like yourselves to say, ‘Listen, I was right there too,’” he said to the audience at the mission.
“I’m not speaking as if I haven’t been there. ... And in the veteran community, the reason we’re so strong is we stick together. You need to remember to stick together.”
Those words resonated with some of the people going through the mission’s recovery program, including Navy veteran Joseph Wilson, who is about to graduate and hopes to intern at the same place that has helped him out. Wilson came to the Rescue Mission “to die” but is now assisting others who’ve also walked in off the streets in search of guidance.
“I think it’s very important to bring more awareness to our Veterans Administration to help our veterans, when they’re going from one job to another or having an issue with medical appointments where they can’t make it,” Wilson said. “I think it’s inspiring. It inspires me, what I do right here at the Rescue Mission.
Even those who haven’t served came away motivated.
“I was never a veteran, but most of my life I never really had no family to help me out. It’s always been me, myself and I,” said Harold Rodriguez, also in the program. “I’ve just had to do it my own way, trying to find some way to rise up in life instead of living on the bottom and always struggling. ... Don’t ever give up because God always has a future plan for you.”
Johnson spent time in Tallahassee before his stop in Panama City, and now plans to head to Pensacola and Alabama. Johnson is also the founder of BOOYAH Mortgage, which helps veterans get home loans, and the BOOYAH Veteran Bus Project, which aims to provide buses so veterans, including the homeless, can get make it to their VA appointments. Johnson also stopped by the Stand Down during his time in Panama City.
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