The Walk For Peace garnered my attention when, in late November, I saw a news report about two Buddhist Monks who had been injured while in the walk through Texas. I learned that one was released with minor injuries and the other lost his leg as a result of an automobile colliding with their support car, which ran over Venerable Ajarn Dam.  I thought of the heroic 2300-mile walk he was in the midst of and, from my experience with patients helped by the Trauma Survivors Network (TSN) and my admirable colleague Trauma Survivor Peer Mentors and what they have overcome, I connected with the disappointment and loss he surely was experiencing by not being able to finish his walk that he had committed to. 

I felt compelled to try to do something to help that soft-spoken hero, and I realized I did have a potential way.  I reached out to the Buddhist Temple from where the Walk For Peace originated, then passed on to his Temple in Atlanta and, through their network, finally to him.  I offered to bring my Outrider USA Coyote off-road electric wheelchair to a point along their route and offered that he could use it to make the last leg of his journey with his brother Monks.   He excitedly and gratefully accepted and we began the process of my meeting him in Washington DC.