As she applied a small piece of duct tape to the insole of her worn down New Balance sneakers, Kim Denmark retained her resolve.
“I’ve got a bit of a setback,” she said. “I’ll probably have to get a new pair this weekend.”
The shoes have, Denmark thinks, about 600 miles on them. She lost count. The “#29” written in black sharpie and reapplied many times on the soles mark them as the 29th pair she has gone through since she started to walk across the United States 17 years ago.
Last week, Denmark found her way through Plant City, coming up from Bradenton, through Riverview and Brandon, across James L. Redman Parkway and up U.S. Highway 92 heading into Lakeland.
Denmark, 55, left a life as a business owner in January of 2000, she said, with hopes of bringing attention to the issues of poverty, homelessness, and — most important to her—
homeless veterans.
“When they are on the frontline, we — Americans — we are their No. 1 priority,” Denmark said. “When they come home from the frontline, they should be our No. 1.”
Since starting the journey in her home state of Ohio, Denmark has been through 16 states, logging about 5,500 miles to date. She wears a bright orange jumpsuit, the words “God said, ‘walk’” embroidered over the right chest. Resting against one shoulder, she carries an American Flag and over her chest and back, bungee cords connect two pieces of poster board announcing her mission and cause:
“Kim is walking across America,” it says on the front. “Walking for homelessness, poverty and homeless veterans,” on the back.
Her life as a business owner, Denmark said, was comfortable, but unfulfilling. She began to care more about the money she made than the people with whom she worked. She had to make a change.
Now, her primary focus is her walk. She sometimes has to return home to Ohio to recuperate and work odd jobs to make money, but she always marks where she left off so she can continue from the right spot. It’s a humbling life, but the spiritual fulfillment is all she said she needs.
Usually, she’s able to walk between one and 10 miles per day, depending on what needs to get done.
When traveling through a community, Denmark said, she tries to find local homeless populations and help in any way she can. She’ll contact outreach groups, reach out to city officials and visit camp sites in the woods or Dumpsters behind buildings, wherever she needs to go. Sometimes, those meetings happen by chance.
“I was leaving a meeting and when I headed down Collins Street to go home, I saw this person dressed in bright orange and carrying an American Flag walking towards Baker Street,” said Shirley Chamberlain, a local homeless advocate. “Of course, we talked and exchanged numbers. I told her about some of our homeless citizens.”
The next day, Chamberlain said, she had another “chance encounter” with Denmark. She said they were talking on the phone as Denmark stopped into a convenience store for a drink. It happened to be the same convenience store Chamberlain was pulling into, one located near a homeless camp where the daughter of Robert Stewart, a recently deceased homeless veteran, was living with her newborn.
“I believe some higher power had me stop at that store,” Chamberlain said. “Not only is that where Kim was, but also, Lisa’s campsite was right there, and when we realized that we spent quite a long time talking with Lisa.”
Chamberlain said Denmark was able to give some new perspectives on how she might be able to help Lisa. She said Denmark even returned to Plant City Sunday to speak at her church, Victory Worship center.
“I plan on staying in contact with her,” Chamberlain said. “I have made a wonderful new friend who shares my passions.”
The journey isn’t always that easy, Denmark said. She has faced racism, being told she wasn’t welcome on a particular street in a town in Pennsylvania. She’s been hit by objects thrown from cars and had obscenities shouted at her.
In each case, she said she found more support than adversity.
“When they found out (about not being allowed down a certain street) I had people surround me and walk with me to make sure I knew I was welcome,” she said.
Ultimately, Denmark hopes to end her walk in the halls of Congress. She’s been documenting her journey and time spent with the homeless population throughout the country. It has given her hope and ideas of how to address the issues she thinks are putting people on the street.
“Because of her travels, Kim has a wealth of knowledge and ideas about ways to assist the homeless and has seen countless projects working to end homelessness in various cities throughout the country,” Chamberlain said.
Many of those ideas have coalesced into her ultimate goal, to create a 50-acre, full-service facility offering mental health treatment, hospital services, family counseling and education facilities with job training and two-year college degree programs.
Denmark started walking in her home state of Ohio. She passed through Washington, D.C., early in her journey, but wasn’t prepared to visit Congress. With every mile though, she is earning more recognition and getting closer to returning to Washington with clarity, she thinks.
“I had no agenda (on her first D.C. trip). I just looked like a crazy woman,” Denmark said. “But now I get respect. With my beat up shoes, I get respect.”