BOULDER, Colo. — Josh Harmon and Bradley Hansen have been friends since the first grade, though it was in high school, they believe, that their shared love of adventures began to prosper.
“Brad and I have a passion for walking,” Harmon said.
Walking long distances, to be specific.
Earlier this year, before the pandemic, the two decided to walk from Boulder to their home in Castle Rock in a day on a whim.
That was the first big one-day walk, according to Harmon, who, like his friend, described the more than 60-mile trek as brutal.
The latest walk the 19-year-old CU Boulder sophomores took on was more than 20 miles longer.
It was borne out of a want to do something after the death of George Floyd in May.
“I was partly inspired by the actions my peers around me were taking to stand up against racial injustice,” said Harmon. “We wanted to contribute to some of the change that we saw occurring around us and we wanted to kind of do it in a unique way that was special to us.”
“So much was happening in the country at that point,” said Michele D. Simpson, a professor at CU Boulder. “There was a lot of upheaval and a lot of conversations taking place.”
Hansen was a student in Simpson’s Ethical Puzzles and Moral Conflicts class last semester.
When businesses began reopening, she met with her former student on the patio of a coffee shop in Denver to talk.
“Something that was really with him, just present with him and had been present with him was wanting to make an affirmative contribution in some way, shape or form,” Simpson said. “I said, ‘what do you do? What can you do?’ It wasn’t a challenge. It was just, what can you do where you might be able to make some sort of affirmative contribution.”
Talk of a walk began there.
“We figured we could make a fundraiser and raise money,” said Hansen.
It was Simpson who suggested the Boulder County chapter of the NAACP as a beneficiary of their fundraising effort.
Hansen and Harmon started a gofundme page and set a date and a distance for their walk.
“Our walk was 84.6 miles, which signified the eight minutes and 46 seconds the officer was on George Floyd’s neck,” said Harmon.
“We started at the MLK memorial at City Park in Denver and we finished at Fort Carson,” said Hansen.
The walk took two days to complete.
As they walked, the donations they received surpassed the $10,000 goal they set.
“We’ve had people donate from all over the country, which has been a really great thing to see,” said Hansen. “It sparked a really important conversation among our peers… It can kind of show them that you can do anything to create a change. Going to protest and stuff like that is fantastic and that is crucial to create change, but you can do stuff in your local community to make people start a conversation.”
Hansen said both he and his friend were hesitant at first to do interviews about their walk because they don’t want any of the spotlight.
“This is not about us,” Hansen said. “This is so much bigger than me and him, the fundraiser, this topic is so much bigger than us.”
“It was important for us to make sure we were raising money for a good cause, that we were doing everything we could to push ourselves to our limits and we’re really proud of the results we saw from the walk and from our community pitching in,” said Harmon. “We really couldn’t have done it without the hundreds of people that donated to the cause.”
“These young men took this on and sent such a strong message,” said Simpson. “Not just to their peers, but to me, to us about not only making a commitment, but really reflecting on what is my commitment, what am I committed to? What am I dedicated to? Then, making it happen. Putting action to that. That’s what makes this different.”
The 84.6-mile walk will not be the last for Hansen and Harmon.
The two plan to hold similar events in the future to raise money for other causes they are passionate about.
They also learned something about themselves thanks to their adventure.
“To have an experience like this where you’re not just pushing yourself physically to the limit, but mentally, it was really life changing for me,” said Harmon. “Now, I feel like I have that experience to show me in other instances that, okay, maybe I can push myself further. Maybe I can push myself beyond what I thought was possible before.”
“We could have probably pushed ourselves even further,” said Hansen. “Getting the support and backing from the people that we have just kind of proved to us even more that if we wanted to do a walk like this again, we proved to ourselves that we can do that.”
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