Post-Tribune |

Military veteran and childhood friend walk across country to remind us that America is, indeed, beautiful

Dimitri Olympidis noticed two men walking along a county road just a couple blocks from his rural Valparaiso home. The men were bundled up and carrying large, heavy backpacks, heading west against a cold wind on a gloomy Wednesday evening.

“Where you headed?” asked Olympidis, who was driving home from work.

“California,” replied Trevor Stephens, 24, a U.S. Marines veteran.

Stephens explained that he and his friend from childhood, Matt Andersen, 24, are walking across the United States to raise money for the Purple Heart Foundation.

On March 1, the men left Lewes, Del., billed as “the first town in the first state.” They’re planning on ending their trip in San Francisco, hopefully by September.

“Wow!” Olympidis replied.

His sleepy neighborhood in Morgan Township doesn’t get a lot of cross-county walkers, he joked to Stephens.

Stephens and Andersen have been walking about 25 miles each day. They never know where they’ll sleep on any given night.

Olympidis invited the men to dinner at his home. He also offered them a ride, but Stephens and Andersen needed to get in their miles that day, they said.

At Olympidis’ home, the two men met Olympidis’ wife and shared more of their story. They were on their way from Hanna, a small dot on the map east of Valparaiso, to Winfield, where they figured they would sleep that night, somewhere.

Olympidis offered his home to them that night.

The Olympidis’ children affectionately called the two strangers, “the cool guys.”

“My kids loved them,” Olympidis told me Thursday morning after they left his home.

I caught up to them that afternoon, west of Winfield, as they walked toward the Illinois state line. They were hoping to make it to Chicago Heights by nightfall. Again, no idea where to sleep.

“We are camping here tonight,” Stephens told me later that night from Sauk Trail Woods in the Cook County Forest Preserves in South Chicago Heights, Ill.

They never know for sure where they’ll sleep until it gets close to sundown, they said. They’ve been sleeping mostly outdoors, but every now and then they’ll stay in a hotel or motel to get cleaned up and to relax for a few hours.

Both men are from Council Bluffs, Iowa. Both are single with no children. Best friends since seventh grade, they met playing football at school.

Andersen said he recently graduated from college with a chemical engineering degree. He said he delayed a promising career opportunity to join his best buddy on this cross-country trek. It’s likely a once-in-a-lifetime odyssey.

Stephens served four years in the Marines, he said. He was deployed to multiple countries in Eastern Europe before returning to civilian life, he said.

“We both like traveling and we wanted to see the country,” Andersen said.

“It’s something not many people can say they have done, and we thought we should do it to support a good cause that we both believe in,” Stephens said. “We were looking into foundations that provided military veterans with assistance.”

One of Stephens’ staff sergeants, who’s a combat veteran, suggested the Purple Heart Foundation, chartered in 1957.

The foundation’s website states, “In combat, warriors count on their comrades to have their backs. Yet when they return home, when they face new and daunting challenges – emotional, medical, financial and more – who is there for them? Who has their back then? The answer is we do, providing counsel, a wide range of support, and unwavering advocacy. And a good measure of love.”

Stephens noted, “When you come back from a deployment, you have to face new challenges. This foundation is one that is there to offer financial support and more, so veterans don’t have to face these challenges alone.”

As of Friday morning, the men have raised $1,100 of their $5,000 goal on an online fundraising site.

The men post online updates of their trek on their Facebook page, “Matt and Trevor’s Walk Across America.” And on their Instagram page, “24_and_much_more.”

“The people we’ve met along the way have been great,” Stephens said. “We’ve definitely been very blessed to meet the people we have. And we’re grateful for even the smallest contributions to our cause.”

Strangers have offered them meals, drinks, smiles, and a place to sleep at night.

“People like Dimitri,” Stephens said.

“Most people approach us the same way he did,” Andersen said.

In other words, most people they’ve encountered have been curious, kind, welcoming, generous, and supportive. They’ve opened they hearts, opened their wallets, even opened their homes to two strangers they’ve just met. Imagine that.

“It’s people like them that truly make this trip worth it,” Stephens said.

It’s so easy to wrongly believe that our country has lost its heart amid today’s often heartless political climate.

We read the daily news and come to the nightly conclusion that our nation is falling apart.

We tend to believe all the worst attributes about ourselves as a people.

And then two strangers walk through our little corner of this troubled country. They’re not selling anything. They’re not making a political stand. They’re not endangering anyone. They’re not trying to fool anyone.

They’re just reminding us, without really trying, that maybe the sky isn’t falling. And maybe we’re better than what we’ve been led to believe by our fears and our differences.

Just when we think that America is maybe not as beautiful as it’s been billed, a military veteran and his childhood pal have allowed Americans to be, well, beautiful.

jdavich@post-trib.com

Twitter @jdavich