Peace Pilgrim, by Randall Roberts

From 1953 until 1981, a silver haired woman calling herself “Peace Pilgrim” walked more than 25,000 miles on a personal pilgrimage for peace. She shared her simple but profound message “when enough of us find inner peace, our institutions will become peaceful and there will be no more occasion for war.” Randall will share what he knows about this remarkable woman and her words that touched his life. The presentation will explore her beginnings and hit the highlights of her steps toward finding inner peace.

In 2019, Randall challenged himself to walk the 100 miles from Xenia to Milford and back in 48 hours. He did so starting at midnight on Jan 1st. What started as a personal quest to earn a 100 mile patch from the NCTA turned into him dedicating the walk to suicide awareness and mental health. From his friends, relatives, and acquaintances, he collected 51 names of people who had died by suicide. Each hour during the walk, he made a live Facebook video dedicated to a person from the list as he openly talked about various aspects of suicide and mental health. During the walk, he listened to an audio version of “Peace Pilgrim Her Life and Work In Her Own Words”. A single message from Peace Pilgrim had a profound affect: “You have endless energy only when you are working for the good of the whole – you have to stop working for your little selfish interests. That’s the secret of it. In this world you are given as you give.”

Randall began hiking the 1,440 mile Buckeye Trail (BT) in Ohio in November 2008. After hiking a little at a time on weekends, he finished the trail in its entirety on May 20, 2017. From there, he went on to complete the Ohio portion of the American Discovery Trail and the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCNST) in Ohio and Pennsylvania. He is currently working on the Finger Lakes Trail in NY.

He has completed all of the annual Emma “Grandma” Gatewood Solstice (EGGS) challenges – 20, 40, 60, 80 miles in 12, 24, 36, and 48 hours respectively. In addition to the EGGS challenge, he has participated in the A-100 challenge in the Allegheny National Forest, hiking 50 miles twice, the “Crucible Hike” on the Laurel Highlands Hiking trail (70 miles in 3 days), 24 and 48 hour ultras (with mixed results), and has made two attempts at the Rachel Carson Trail Challenge.