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Four college buddies could have left Monroe last night and driven to Toledo in about three hours. A short road trip.
Or they could be like three Monroe High School graduates — Jake Essig, 21, Derek Garde, 21, and Nick Streibick, 20 — and Isaac Beal, 22, of Greenfield, Ind., who graduated from Huntington University three days ago, and dribbled a soccer ball there with an arrival tentatively scheduled for any day between June 1-15, depending on weather or other possible delays.
Last summer, as members of the Huntington (Ind.) University men’s soccer team, Essig and Beal attended a soccer camp in Toledo, where they were introduced to LifeLine Toledo, the city’s medical unit. Essig compared it to an emergency room on wheels that serves the underprivileged and under served in the city, which has a poverty rate of 18 percent.
The bus is in major need of repairs and upgrades to keep up with the demand of its services, Essig said. So to help, they will dribble one soccer ball among the four of them for 250 miles along U.S. 127. They will have to dribble between 15 and 20 miles a day to make it to Toledo by early June. They’re camping in small towns along with way and have a couple churches lined up that will let them stay on their property and use their showers.
They will stop and spread the word of LifeLine to anyone who will listen. They figure four guys wearing florescent T-shirts kicking a soccer ball along the road will draw attention. They may stop more than one John Deere.
They came up with a name — Dribble4Toledo — and decided to raise funds for the organization, with a goal of $10,000. So far, they have raised $6,000 with support from businesses and family and friends. They also are selling T-shirts for $10, and every penny is being donated, they said.
They are walking, carrying backpacks with tents and sleeping bags, and one of them will constantly be dribbling a soccer ball.
The four said their parents taught them the importance of giving back. They said they feel fortunate. Now they want to share, one step at a time.
“We have a Biblical backing,” said Essig, a 2010 Monroe graduate and senior at Huntington.
His mother, Jennifer MacDonald, said a few months ago, her son pitched the idea of walking from Monroe to Toledo.
“He said, ‘I have a crazy idea,’” his mother said. “‘And don’t try to stop me.’”
Then she added with a motherly smile: “I wasn’t going to stop them.”
David Beal said when his son and Essig attended the summer camp in Toledo, LifeLine “touched their hearts.”
“It’s about them leaving their mark,” David Beal said. “This is their way.”
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