GRAND RAPIDS (WOOD) — A West Michigan man is on a journey on foot from the Grand Haven area all the way to Miami to raise awareness for mental illness.
Lee Johns, originally from Montague, is calling it The Long Walk Project. Every step he is taking is for someone who feels like they can’t take another.
“I had a few family members struggling with mental health, even myself a little bit, and it just never really gets addressed,” he said. “I want to change that.”
He knows what it feels like to carry weight that no one sees. Now, he’s carrying that message,
along with a 60-pound pack on a nearly 1,500-mile journey.
“Mental health doesn’t have a finish line,” he wrote on his GoFundMe page. “It doesn’t clock out at 5 p.m. And it doesn’t care how tough you pretend to be. And I believe that even one person, walking solo across the country can spark conversations, raise awareness, and offer hope to someone who needs it.”
As of Sunday afternoon, his 26th day on foot, he had already walked more than 280 miles.
“I just took off. I just left,” he said. “I just wake up each morning, check the map and kind of figure out where I want to make it.”
He carries treading poles, a solar panel, battery packs, water, an inflatable pillow and bed, a blanket, a tent, a chair, a first aid kit and more. With all of that on his back, most days, he walks between 15 to 20 miles with no support team. It’s just him, the road and a cause.
The road may be lonely, but he said the people he has met are the unexpected highlight.
“You’d be surprised by all the cool people you run into on a daily basis,” Johns said.
Some people have offered a couch to sleep on, a yard to camp on and sometimes lasting friendship.
“I don’t really know where I’m going to end up each day,” he said. “That’s kind of part of the journey, just trying to figure out each day.”
Every day, he documents his journey and shares it to social media sites like TikTok and YouTube. He hopes people who are watching know that anything is possible if you just put your mind to it.
“I never thought I’d be walking across the country,” he said. “I just take it one day at a time. I hope someone can see that maybe they’re going through something and maybe they can see it’s not as hard as they thought it might be. You just got to keep trying at it. Eventually, you’ll get to your destination.”
With still more than 1,000 miles to go, Johns says this is just the beginning. After he arrives in Miami, he plans to continue his journey headed toward San Diego.
“Life’s not as difficult as we make it seem like it is,” he said. “It’s not that hard. You just got to wake up and do something.”
All the money Johns raises is going to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which provides education, support, advocacy and resources for individuals, families and communities.
He said even if the fundraiser grows slowly, the goal is to start a conversation one step at a time.
