An epic cross-country benefit walk, with a daughter finding her footing in life along the way

Dec. 3—Army veteran and Sackets Harbor resident Kenneth J. Mintz discovered many places and people on his walk across America as he raised funds for three charities close to his heart.

But helping one of his children find a new path in life may be the legacy of the trek he treasures most.

Margaret A. Mintz, a 2018 graduate of Sackets Harbor Central School, said her life needed direction. It's a life that has battled addiction issues and all the heavy baggage that brought.

"She's been through a lot in her young life," Mr. Mintz said from his second home in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a few weeks after finishing his Kenny Walks Across America journey that began April 1 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

"This was probably the most positive, enduring things she has ever experienced in her life," he said. "And having her there for me was probably the most significant aspect of this walk to me."

"My life has been all over the place," Miss Mintz said in a phone interview on Thanksgiving eve from her new home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. "I was living a bad life, going nowhere."

She found a fresh start, and steps in the right direction, beginning in Indiana.

It's there where Mr. Mintz picked her up after flying her into Indianapolis.

"I found her in a bad state, and said, 'Why don't I just buy you a plane ticket and you could come out here with me.' And we'll just take it day by day and see what happens," Mr. Mintz said.

"The life I was doing before, it was like, 'What the hell am I doing?'" Miss Mintz said. Considering her dad's request, Miss Mintz said she thought, "I could come out here and restart my entire life. I very well may not have an opportunity like this again. I was unemployed, with no money."

She added that she had "no strings attached."

"I was like, 'This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Are you going to take it, even though it's crazy and random?""

The trek with her dad included days that were rough for the relationship.

"My eyes opened about what things look like versus what they really are, especially on this walk," said Miss Mintz, who noted that she left for the walk after spending a few days at an acquaintance of her dad's home in Delaware, "detoxing in bed," before flying out.

Beginning in Indiana, they took things one step at a time.

"He was posting every day on Facebook his perspective of the journey and just kind of talking about the day," Miss Mintz said. "Even when he talks about the trials and tribulations, nobody can fully understand. I was miserable, speaking for myself. I was angry. We would fight. It was like coming off of drugs. I didn't want to be there. It was very, very difficult."

But together, they made it to California and the Pacific Ocean.

"I was supposed to just stay for a week and walk, which was really silly of me, because I had no way of getting back from out there," Miss Mintz said.

A few days into her walk, she discovered that her dad's support van needed a new driver. She switched from walking to driving — and fully supporting.

"I had the van donated to my cause," Mr. Mintz said. "But having a driver was the last piece of the puzzle I needed. And her being with me obviously was a part of what I needed to finish the mission. But it was really good for her, I think, just to be in a new environment, meeting new people, having some time to think about what she wanted to do with her life."

"We created a routine, got into a rhythm," Miss Mintz said. "I could read his mind. We knew what each other wanted before we said it. It couldn't have been anyone else but me."

The gamut of emotions felt by Miss Mintz was as varied as the terrain she and her dad tread over on the way west.

"It was constant frustration, but beautiful at times as well," Miss Mintz said. "I had experiences that I can never take back. But it was so hard, moving from place to place every single day. I'm 22, coming off drugs and trying to maintain my dad's speed and take care of his needs."

But a key element of the walk motivated her.

"I got to allow somebody else to fulfill their dreams," she said. "This was a big driving factor for me. This is my dad's thing. Life is so short. It's what we make of it. Doing something like that is not normal, not societally what everyone else is doing. It's very off the beaten path."

"She and I were the team that worked to figure things out," Mr. Mintz said. "She did a great job."

But he echoed daughter Margaret's reflections of rough patches along the road.

"It wasn't like this idyllic relationship," Mr. Mintz said. "It was hard. It was difficult for both of us. Difficult because I had a pretty relentless schedule. She wasn't quite psychologically prepared for the level of commitment that it was going to take to do this thing. Over time, she took ownership for it. And she finished. I think she needed that. She needed a win in her life. She got that win, and felt like she was a big part of it, because she was a big part of it."

A life of service

In June 2021, Mr. Mintz retired from the Army at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, as a colonel after 34 years of service. He was an infantryman, with nine years stationed at Fort Drum. He took part in four deployments — three to Afghanistan and one to Iraq. As a battalion commander in Afghanistan, he said his unit lost 14 soldiers during a year of combat in Kandahar Province.

But he's lost more comrades to suicide than combat, a fact that helped to select the three charities he raised funds for on the walk.

Those charities:

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

The Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund

Operation Resiliency

Mr. Mintz was 4 when his mom, then 23, decided to start a new life in California. His dad, he explained, was out of the picture. With no money and possessions, she drove from their home in Alexandria, Virgnia, to San Diego. With no college degree, but with an excellent work ethic, his mom got a job as a receptionist for a defense contractor. He said after a few years, she was running the company, and eventually co-founded a new company. That, to Mr. Mintz, is the American Dream encapsulated. His mom died in 2020 following a five-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

The Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund began as a small effort by a group to help the family of a fallen 1986 West Point classmate. It transformed into a mission to help as many military families as possible. Mr. Mintz is a graduate of West Point Military Academy, which recruited him from a southern California high school partially because of his prowess in football.

Operation Resiliency focuses on the mental health and well-being of veterans in order to prevent suicide and improve overall quality of life for them and their families.

Mr. Mintz finished his walk on Saturday, Oct. 22, his 174th day of walking, averaging 19 miles a day. He wore out eight pairs of shoes — six pairs of Altra Lone Peaks and two pairs of Altra Olympuses.

For the final stretch, he walked about 9 miles from the Arroyo Preserve east of Rancho Santa Fe into the Pacific Ocean at Swami's Beach in Encinitas, California.

He measured a total of 3,294 miles. At the end, in addition to walk partner Margaret, his daughter Emma, a process engineer for Dow Chemical in Michigan, joined them. Mr. Mintz has two other children, Maximus Mintz, a student at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, and Ruth A. Mintz of Sackets Harbor.

He's raised just over $100,000 for his nonprofits, with donations still arriving. He'll accept them through the end of the year.

The power of camaraderie

Hundreds of people joined Mr. Mintz on his walk, some going out of their way to meet up with him.

"I had all kinds of different people walk with me," he said. "A lot of them were my West Point classmates just because they're older and not as engaged in work. They had maybe some more flexibility. They would just find me and fly out to an airport close to me and drive, or even drive a long way to come and link up with me."

Mr. Mintz said that as he trekked across the country, he found clusters of classmates and veterans he served with and other veterans he didn't know. Mr. Mintz grew up in California, and classmates from Fallbrook Union High School, where he graduated in 1987, were among those who found him.

"They just knew what I was doing through other friends and acquaintances. I think it just resonated with people that I would do something like this."

That camaraderie powered him onward.

"It was the best part of this because I wanted to find connection," he said. "And I thought that connection was part of the mission of this whole walk. To see it blossom like that — it exceeded my expectations. It was amazing to see happen. Guys who I served with, who I have not seen in 30 years, came out and found me, flew out from all corners of the country."

The worst part of his trek was the "traffic stress." Maintaining constant vigilance of that danger was mentally exhausting.

"I went out of my way to avoid highways," Mr. Mintz said. "I probably put an extra 300 or 400 miles into my walk, just because I got off the main routes."

The most enjoyable part of the country for Mr. Mintz was found in the Southwest.

"I walked down from Colorado, down into Taos, (New Mexico), which was amazing," he said. "I took the high road to Taos, a mountain road between Taos and Santa Fe. Then I walked east of Albuquerque, east of the mountain range on the Turquoise Trail."

The Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway, named for the rich turquoise deposits found throughout the area, encompasses 15,000 square miles in the heart of central New Mexico, linking Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Then, Mr. Mintz got onto U.S. Route 60, hitting New Mexico and into Arizona.

"I was up in the mountains, going through all these funky towns," he said. "It was sort of what you thought the old Route 66 would have been like. It was beautiful countryside. When I was going into the Southwest, I expected it to be a hot desolate place. I found it to be varied, forested and mountainous. And I was at attitude, so it wasn't super hot. Even when I got down into western Arizona, when I went down into the desert, it was late enough in the year that it was just really kind of enjoyable and different."

Most of the people who would inquire about Mr. Mintz's walk were older.

"Most people were indifferent," he said. "When you're this random dude walking down the road, especially when I was alone — in general, people are wary of you. When I was with a group of people, there tended to be more interest. I was cognizant of that. And frankly, most people are in a hurry. When I was in a rural area, the people tended to stop and check in with me. The older people seemed more inclined to engage in conversation."

New perspectives

Before leaving California, Mr. Mintz was recognized by various luminaries at the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce. He received plaques and certificates to commemorate the completion of his walk.

Seated comfortably in the airliner that flew him back east a few weeks ago, Mr. Mintz couldn't help looking down in wonder as he passed over the country's heartland.

"It was moving," he said. "It just didn't seem real. When you are inching your way across the country, obviously, it takes a long time and you have an idea that — yeah, this is a long way. But when you're up there just looking at the whole expanse of it, you realize, I was just this little human moving across this giant plate, across this country. You look at all the different terrain and all the different things you went through. Your sense of scale is a lot different. It's how am I going to get through the day, versus looking at the whole thing almost."

In Lake Havasu City, Arizona, Miss Mintz is looking at the big picture and is encouraged with her new surroundings. It's there, an area she discovered on her westward journey, where she has decided to put down roots.

She arrived in the community, where she knew no one, two days after her dad's walk concluded.

"I had to restart my life," Miss Mintz said. "I decided I'd regret it if I don't stay out here and instead go back to Pennsylvania to live with my dad."

She works as a barista at a cafe and added that she also picks up odd jobs, such as in construction. Miss Mintz is also a musician — a singer and guitar player — and has picked up some gigs.

"It's still terrifying," she said. "Almost every day, it's like, 'What am I doing? How am I even able to do this?' But I make it work. I've met people I trust."

Lake Havasu City is on the eastern shore of man-made Lake Havasu along the Colorado River border of California and Arizona. The area regularly attracts nearly a million visitors annually with its historic, relocated London Bridge, navigable waterways and other outside activities.

"It's like no other place I've ever seen," Miss Mintz said.

It's a place she finds easy to appreciate, and one of gratitude, found naturally.

"Sound travels differently in the desert," she said. "The lighting is different. Everything about it is different from New York. It doesn't even compare. It was, 'I want to go and live in a different world and something I never experienced before.'"

She has found that world.

"I had no idea. Now, I'm like, 'How much more is there out here?'"

The details — WHAT: Kenny Walks Across America. — PURPOSE: Army veteran and Sackets Harbor resident Kenneth J. Mintz concluded his epic trek in October. But through the end of the year, he is still raising funds for the three nonprofits related to the walk: the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Operation Resiliency and the Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund. — TO DONATE: Go to Mr. Mintz's website at wdt.me/kenwalkbenefits. People may also donate at www.gofundme.com/f/kenny-walks-across-america.