When a catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti in January, recent college grad Jordan Dibb figured he'd be a relief organization's ideal recruit. Young, strong, and willing, the 23-year-old had the desire to help and few career prospects to keep him from going.
But when he contacted a major relief organization, Dibb was rejected. Not enough disaster relief experience, he was told. Others said he had to be a doctor or a nurse. Exasperated, Dibb asked the last operator he spoke with what he'd have to do to get to Haiti.
"Walk there," she replied, obviously joking, but with no idea that Dibb would at least get as close as possible.
So Dibb set up a website, I Walk for Love, along with a Facebook account where followers can track his progress, and set out on a walk March 27.
And walked. And kept on walking. All the way from Minneapolis to Miami. Approximately 3,515,000 steps over 1,930 miles, southward across the increasingly hot face of the United States, along the side of highways and by rest stops and through small towns and large.
He carried nothing more than a backpack with a change of clothes, a cell phone, a laptop, and some food, and all he asked along the way was a dollar from everyone who heard about his journey -- a dollar destined to help find long-term food and water solutions in the earthquake-ravaged nation through the work of Action Against Hunger.
100 days later, on his final walk into Miami on Sunday, Jordan hadn't quite reached his fundraising goal. In fact, he's wasn't very close. But he did raised nearly $30,000 for Haiti, and that's considerably more than most 23-year-olds -- or otherwise.
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"I'm just blown away that I made it all the way down here," he said Saturday from Fort Lauderdale beach, where his family and girlfriend joined him to complete his final stretch. "I can't believe how many people I got to meet. It's been great."
Sunday, Dibb set out over the Venetian Causeway about noon and concluded his cross-country campaign at Miami City Hall around 3 p.m. The benefit of having helped an entire nation is reward enough, he said, but there has been an added bonus.
"I've gotten really big leg muscles," he reported with a laugh.
