Manny Figueiredo couldn't wait to pull off his shoes and socks Friday evening.
The CEO of the Hamilton/Burlington/Brantford YMCA reached the Flamborough Y just after 6 p.m., about 10 hours and 43 km after starting The Long Walk Home in Brantford.
Figueiredo, along with seven other team members, isn't done yet: they'll walk another 30 km for the final leg of the fundraiser for the downtown YMCA Men's Residence on Saturday. The plan was to take off from Waterdown at about 8 a.m., head down to the Ron Edwards YMCA in Burlington and then finish up with dinner at the Hamilton Y.
The Y Saves Lives campaign team member Kelly Frapporti-Tobin came up with idea for the initiative back in January.
“I want to show the community that the YMCA is more than a gym, that [the Y isn’t] receiving any kind of municipal funding for the residents,” she said. “I just want to bring awareness to how the men are struggling and need a bit more support.”
The goal was to raise money for the Men's Residence and create awareness for the programs they provide to support the mental health and other needs of the men.
"Our goal was to raise $25,000, and then we got greater awareness with the fire," said Figueiredo, referencing the July 22 blaze that displaced hundreds of residents. "Today, I think we hit $67,000. So eight of us, walking to bring awareness, some staff, some volunteers."
The donations came from The Long Walk Home web page, and team members solicited donations from their networks. People they met along the route have also been moved to contribute.
"We came from Brantford all the way to Ancaster to Hwy. 2, then we went down Wilson Street," said Figueiredo. "As we walked through the village we would stop and have conversations. One man gave a $20 bill."
The group's accommodations for the evening - a row of tents set up along Parkside Drive - proved to be a strong talking point, with community members taking to social media and stopping in at the Y front desk to ask if it was an encampment.
"The visibility here - and to see some of the reactions to tents in the communities - this is purposeful, certainly," said Joshua Austin, director of philanthropy for the YMCA. "There's such a stigma attached to people experiencing homelessness, mental health. There's still a stigma attached that and we're gettting better, we're talking about it more.
"But men and mental health - that's still something that's still a little bit taboo. So we need to break that stigma and this is one way that we can do that."
So the walkers will continue, with aches, bandaged blisters and all.
"We're going to be sore tomorrow," Figueiredo said Friday. "It's less - but it's still going to be hard. But we'll do it."
