Daniel's AT fundraiser

2022 UPDATE: Sooo, some of you might have heard of this COVID thing that started going around right before my planned start date. My plans changed a little bit, but my goal remains the same. I am now leaving soon and starting my hike on March 31! For those who donated, know that I haven’t abandoned you, and those joining now well thank you for doing that.

I had to change fundraising platforms because the original one, HikeFor, is no longer operational. In this new model, all your donations are collected to my personal bank account. All credit cards will only be charger at the end of my hike when I declare the number of miles I will have hiked. I will then make the donations myself, half to the ATC and half to Alzheimer’s Association. I will make sure to be as transparent as possible with all of my donors, and let everyone know when I make the final payments. I personally preferred HikeFor’s model where donors made the donations themselves at the end, but we’ll make this one work too!

Big love to all of you, stay safe!

Daniel

ORIGINAL: So, I just decided one day that I want to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, and I decided 2020’s going to be my year, because it gave me enough time to prepare…

In my research, I stumbled upon the Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail podcast (which is great by the way, I highly recommend). On it were past and future hikers talking about their experiences, and many of them decided to use their hikes to raise money or awareness for causes that were important to them. The idea made a lot of sense to me… While doing something as crazy as thru hiking the AT, why not use the opportunity to raise some money? As a bonus, the pledge per mile system keeps me accountable, and gives me yet another reason to keep on trekking!

Now, for my causes: First, I want to help preserve the very thing I’m going to call home for a little while. One of the reasons I want to do this trip is to be in nature and take a break from life. But as you know, nature isn’t doing so well lately, so I want to give back to the people that maintain this beautiful trail, that is the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy). Second, one of my grandmothers has been suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia for a while now, and I have experienced first hand the effects it has on the lives of not just her, but everyone around her. So I want to give the other half of whatever money I get to the Alzheimer’s Association, which help sponsor research for treatments and enhancing the lives of affected people and their families.

If you’ve read this far, I thank you for that, and hope you will consider sponsoring me. If you think about it, $0.01 /mile is only what, $21.90 total? Doesn’t break the bank thaaaat much…

Thanks in advance everybody!

Cheers, Daniel