Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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August 19, 2009

Eleven-Year-Old Boy Walks to Help Homeless Children
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He travels hundreds of kilometers in US to raise awareness of the
problem 
More than one million children are homeless in the United States. To
highlight the problem, eleven-year-old Zach Bachman walked hundreds of
kilometers from his home city of Tampa, Florida to the U.S. Capitol, in
Washington, DC. Along the way, Zach helped out at shelters for the
homeless. In this week's installment of our series, Making a Difference.
Zach Bonner Zach Bonner walked across the southeastern United States, a
1,900 kilometer journey to bring attention to the plight of homeless
children. "I think it's ridiculous that there's any child that doesn't
have a home in this country," Zach explains. "I think it's horrible."He
traveled from Florida to Washington, D.C. where he told an audience near
the U.S. Capitol that child homelessness in America is real."It still
amazes me the amount of people still today who don't believe this
problem even exists. And the truth is, not only does it exist, but it's
getting worse," he asserts. Zach says the problem has several
causes."Because of the economic crisis, it's getting worse because of
people losing their jobs, and people losing their homes. And therefore,
that's also a reason they become homeless," he says, "And sometimes, the
families are abusive toward the child and they run away."Zach did the
walk between his studies. It took him three years to finish his walk,
which he began when he was only eight years old. He averaged 20
kilometers a day. No matter how tired he got, Zach says he felt he had
to keep walking. "When a child gets tired of being homeless, they don't
get to think, 'Well, I'm tired of being homeless, so I'm not going to be
homeless anymore.' So why should I be able to say, 'Well, I'm tired of
walking, so I'm not going to walk anymore,'" he states. Along the way,
Zach visited homeless shelters. ". . . helping plant the gardens - all
kinds of stuff, just getting to play with the kids," he says, "hopefully
making at least one day of their life better."Zach has a long history of
helping others. When he was six years old, a powerfu
l hurricane devastated parts of his home state of Florida. To help
people who had no food or water, he went around his neighborhood with a
little red wagon, asking for donations of bottled water and other
supplies. One year later, Zach began the Little Red Wagon Foundation, a
non-profit organization that helps underprivileged children. He and
other volunteers fill donated backpacks with food, personal hygiene
products, and small toys to give to homeless children. Next year, Zach
Bonner says he will put on his sneakers again as he plans to walk from
Florida to California, raising awareness of America's homeless children.


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