The remains of one of the castles that marked off each mile of Hadrian’s Wall, an 80-mile fortification stretching across the northern United Kingdom that a dozen Dads4Kesem will traverse in July to raise money for the children of people with cancer. (Photo: Wikipedia)
A dozen fathers, half of whom are City Dads Group members, will walk 80 miles — sea to sea — across northern England in July to raise money to benefit the children of parents with cancer and in the memory of one of their own.
Map: www.nationaltrail.co.uk
These fathers will hike along the historic Hadrian’s Wall, a fortification built in the first century A.D. that once marked the northernmost point of the Roman Empire, to support Camp Kesem. Kesem provides free summer camps and other events for the 3 million children nationwide affected by a parent battling cancer. The camp has 70 chapters in 34 states.
The walkers’ goal is collecting $40,000 to start a Camp Kesem chapter on the campus at the University of Maryland, which is near the home of fellow dad blogger Oren Miller. Miller, a University of Maryland grad who died from lung cancer a year ago, chronicled his life as a stay-at-home dad online, using the platform to take on fatherhood stereotypes and pushing for fathers to be included in parental marketing — one issue in particular being to convince online retailer Amazon to change its baby-care subscription club from “Amazon Mom” to “Amazon Family.”
Miller also started a popular Facebook group for dad bloggers that now has more than 1,100 members.
The so-called Dads4Kesem or “Walking Dads” are:
- Chris Routly, Portland Dads Group, of The Full Routly
- Michael Moebes, Atlanta Dads Group, of Dadcation
- Whit Honea, L.A. Dads Group and City Dads Group columnist, of Dads4Change
- Jim Higley, Chicago Dads Group, of Bobblehead Dad. He is also the chief development and marketing officer for Camp Kesem.
- Jason Greene, NYC Dads Group, of One Good Dad
- Jeff Bogle, Philly Dads Group, of Out With the Kids
- Brent Almond of Designer Daddy
- Phil Corless of Idaho Dad
- Doug French of Dad 2.0 Summit
- Josh Misner of Mindful Dad
- John Pacini of Dad 2.0 Summit
- Brian Reasoner of Southern Bella’s Big Daddy
All the participants are paying their own expenses for the July 8-16 trip to England so all donations they collect can go to Camp Kesem.
You can:
- donate to their effort at Dads4Kesem.com
- follow the Dads4Kesem participants on social media at #Dads4Kesem and #TheWalkingDads.
— Jason Greene contributed to this report.
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