A 50-year-old blind Long Beach man is walking from the city to Las Vegas in hopes of raising enough money to help get an autistic boy with diabetes a service dog.
Dubbed the “Kindness Walk,” Robert Smith started the nearly 300-mile trek on Oct. 19 from the Pine Avenue Pier and is slated to finish in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Nov. 20. Accompanied by his friend Rob Hartley, 63, to help guide him along the way – the pair has walked through 30-plus cities – keeping a daily, multi-mile pace along busy highways, windy valleys and mountainous desert.
Smith met the 10-year-old boy – who Smith declined to name for the family’s privacy – when visiting Oregon nearly two years ago. The boy has severe autism and diabetes, and is unable to tell his parents when he feels his blood sugar is starting to crash. The dog will serve as an alert system for his family when the boy’s blood sugar needs tending to, Smith said.
“My father would always tell me, Robert, always love people, forgive people and do acts of kindness along the way,” Smith said via phone on Friday, Nov. 16, while walking up a steep hill near Jean, Nevada – about halfway from the California-Nevada border. “The reason why I started this walk is I want to help that little boy.”
So far, the Kindness Walk has raised $11,000, but needs $4,000 more to get the service dog, Smith said. The 11-year Long Beach resident is no stranger to fundraising, as he also operates The Little Green Apples Project, a nonprofit that he uses for other acts of kindness in the Long Beach area.
“When we left Long Beach, it was smooth sailing for a while,” Smith said. “But we’ve encountered some crazy hills.”
A few other people are helping with the Kindness Walk, following Smith and Hartley with an RV where they sleep every night. But, still walking an average of around 15 miles per day, they’ve endured some major winds while walking through the desert, Hartley said.
“To walk the desert and with 50-mph wind storms, valleys, mountains and the heat – every day going 35,000 to 40,000 steps – (Smith’s) had no complaints,” he said.
Hartley describes the scenery to Smith along the way, ranging from wild horses to desert flowers. But in some ways, Smith sees more than Hartley does, he added.
“Coming from a blind person’s perspective – as I’m walking I hear stuff,” Smith said. “I go ‘Rob, do you hear that?’ And it’ll be an insect, or something, following us.”
Usually, sure enough, something will be there – Hartley will turn his head, focus hard – and see the insect, or source of the sound that he still cannot hear.
From Long Beach, the cities Smith and Hartley walked through are: Lakewood, La Palma, Cerritos, Buena Park, La Mirada, La Habra, Roland Heights, Diamond Bar, Upland, Chino, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Glen Helen Park, San Bernadino, Phelan, Wrightwood, Hesperia, Victorville, Oro Grande, Helendale, Hodge, Lenwood, Barstow, Yermo, Dolores Lake, Dunn, Baker, through the desert on Death Valley Road to Tecopa, Nipton, Renoville, Sandy Valley, Jean and Las Vegas. You can see the route on the Kindness Walk’s website, at www.thekindnesswalk.org.
Across the cities, the duo has encountered a variety of people – from veterans and homeless people to the disabled. Another one of the Kindness Walk’s missions is to bring happiness to veterans and disabled people, fulfilling that by chatting with them along the way with words of inspiration.
“Veterans go through so much and sometimes they’re just lost and forgotten,” said Hartley, who is a veteran himself. “When Robert gets in front of them and befriends them, you see hope in their eyes, like ‘I can do this too.’ It means a lot to let them know somebody cares.”
One of the most meaningful interactions Smith had was with a homeless man who they spoke to, who told them his nephew was a veteran who became blind from an injury during his service. The nephew died in a car accident just a few weeks ago.
“Then he ran to his car, grabbed his nephew’s walking cane and gave it to (Smith),” Hartley said. “He wanted (Smith) to use it on our journey.”
Smith had tears in his eyes as he accepted the cane, Hartley recalled.
“Now I say that we have a Marine walking with us, too,” Smith added.
