KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Texas teenager is walking all the way from his hometown in Lubbock, TX to Washington, D.C., raising money for his nonprofit.
He’s over 1,000 miles into his journey. On Saturday, he made it to Knoxville with a mission motivating every mile.
“Yeah, it's hard,” 17-year-old Eliseo Jimenez shared about the journey. “It's real hard.”
With each footstep, Jimenez is marching closer to his goal.
“I walk like…I think it's like, maybe like 10 hours or 12 hours a day,” he detailed.
Jimenez said he started the trek over a month ago to raise awareness – and money – for his nonprofit.
“We cut yards for free for seniors and disabled individuals,” Jimenez said about the New Life Foundation. “So, out there I’ve seen a lot of, like, lack of benefits from social security administration and I have people tell me that their social security checks, they're like, usually late or it's not enough. So I just wanna bring awareness to this because it's kind of messed up honestly.”
In need of a new lawnmower, Jimenez decided to lace up his tennis shoes and hit the pavement.
“It's been a long journey and I went through Wichita, Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville,” Jimenez rattled off the list. “And here I am in Knoxville.”
He’s 1,144 miles in, with 485 miles left to go in his journey toward Washington.
“It's just me walking by myself, sadly,” Jimenez shared. “It gets very lonely. I say it's more of a mental thing out there instead of a physical because I'm a social person. I like to talk a lot.”
With every stranger he meets, he gets to talk about the New Life Foundation and how he’s stepping up to make a difference.
“It definitely makes me feel unique and different,” Jimenez said. “I don't want to say that, but it really does and it just makes me feel like…I don't want to say it, but good about myself.”
Jimenez said he’s hoping to reach D.C. by Aug. 21.
“I'm trying to speed it up because my school starts August 14th and I don't want to miss a lot of school because I’ve got too many AP classes,” Jimenez smiled.
When it comes to the inspiration for this journey, Jimenez said his brother gave him the idea. The two were talking about raising money for his charity.
“He was like, ‘You should walk around Lubbock and raise money like that,” Jimenez said about the conversation with his brother. “And I was like, ‘I should walk to Washington. That'd be pretty cool.’ And he said, ‘Uh, I don't know about all that but you can try.’ I guess I'm trying.”
He’s trying despite the trials, like spending the night outside some nights on the concrete or dodging traffic.
“Tennessee really doesn't have shoulders,” Jimenez compared the Volunteer State to others he’s traveled through. “or when there's a car passing by, I have to jump in a ditch real quick, wait for them to pass by and then jump back on the road and walk. And I've walked through rain and up hills and down hills and it's, it's bad but it's for a good cause.”
Jimenez is raising money through this GoFundMe.