FREEDOM WALK Pastor achieves his 100-mile goal

The pastor said he could never have completed the walk without support.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LIBERTY -- It took more than 29 painful hours, plenty of Midol and duct tape and a few leg massages, but the Rev. Dan Cesene finished what he started out to do.
The Rev. Mr. Cesene, pastor of the First Christian Assembly Church in Liberty, completed his 100-mile Freedom Walk on Saturday night, and raised money for Teen Straight Talk and Barnabas Ministries.
"Money is still coming in slowly, but right now we are at about $1,500 collected," Mr. Cesene said. "If all of the pledges come in, then we should reach the $2,000 mark."
Support
Mr. Cesene set out Friday afternoon, planning to walk 100 miles in 30 hours, taking pledges for each mile he walked. But Mr. Cesene knows he couldn't have done it without the support of others.
"The real story here is all of the people who showed up to give their support and to help me walk," Mr. Cesene said as he soaked his feet in buckets of ice. "I knew before I started that I had at least 60 miles in me, and I was hoping the sheer excitement of it all would help push me over the top."
But after 70 miles, Mr. Cesene said, he "hit the wall."
"I was doing everything I could," he said. "I had people massaging my legs when they could; I had people putting duct tape on my feet to cover the huge blisters.
"After about 80 miles, I was so zoned out I wouldn't have been able to follow the course line even if I wanted to," he continued.
But people were there, he noted. They pledged their money, their time and their legs to helping him walk, keeping him awake and ensuring he stayed on the quarter-mile course that circled the church.
"It got to where all my energy was concentrated on getting one foot in front of the other," Mr. Cesene said. "It was really a team effort. I couldn't have done it without everyone helping and cheering me on."
But now, after having recuperated a few days, Mr. Cesene realizes the good his walking was able to do. The money raised will be distributed between the two organizations, both of which provide educational outreach programs in Africa.
Anyone still interested in pledging can call the church at (330) 759-2272 or Mr. Cesene at (330) 503-8894.
slshaulis@vindy.com