Walkers witness to sanctity of human life

A group of 10 college-aged students and their walk leader spent part of a morning in Imperial last week as they marked the halfway point of their Crossroads Pro-Life Walk Across America.
    After camping overnight June 27 at Enders Lake Recreation Area, they spent part of Wednesday morning in Imperial. They embarked on the next leg of their walk after a blessing from Fr. Lothar Gilde, pastor at St. Patrick Catholic Church.
    Martha Nolan, walk leader from Gibson Island, Md., said there are 10 in their group, which is completing the central route of the walk from San Francisco to Washington D.C.
    A southern route is being completed by another group of walkers, who started from Los Angeles and will meet up with the central group in Washington D.C. in mid-August.
    Nolan noted this is the 23rd summer of walking across the U.S. by the Crossroads groups after the first walk was completed in 1995.
    “Our mission is to witness to the dignity and sanctity of all human life, especially the unborn,” she said.
    Within each cross-country trek, two to three walkers are out at a time, and they rotate to walk an average of 40 miles a day. Nolan said each individual walker generally puts in 10 to 15 miles a day.
    While not walking, the participants take turns driving the support vehicle which stays with the walkers at all times, she said.
    The walkers take secondary roads, Nolan said, and sometimes, like in this area, they have to drive ahead to a different spot to continue walking due to little to no shoulders along the roads, or detours.
    From Imperial, the group drove to North Platte, where they continued their eastern trek, planning to reach Washington D.C. the same time as the southern group.
    They will join forces there at Catholic University’s basilica in D.C., and walk their final mile together to the Capitol building for an Aug. 12 rally.
    Walkers in the central group which begin their effort May 20 in San Francisco are from several states across the U.S. including Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, California, Nevada and Maryland, as well as Canada.