RUMFORD — With just the contents of his backpack and his walking stick, Leroy Bailey has spent the past two years walking the perimeter of the contiguous United States to raise money and awareness for the homeless.

He started his walk on June 30, 2014, after praying to God for how he could help.

By last Thursday, Bailey, with a beard and long hair reminiscent of Forrest Gump, had made it nearly 11,000 miles through sprains and stress fractures, venturing from Bethel into Rumford.

Even more amazing, Bailey has no entourage, no support group.

“I guarantee I’m the first person to walk the United States, unsupported,” he said.

Bailey, who walks with three flags that have meaning to him, including one he got from an Indian reservation, started in Virginia Beach, where he lives. His walking took him down to Florida, around Texas, up through California, Washington, east around the Great Lakes and eventually led him to Maine.

“There’s no way to describe how much I walk by faith,” he said. “I don’t know what the next town looks like. You see towns on your map and then there’s nothing there. And up here, if you don’t get into a town before 8 o’clock at night, you’re not getting anything to eat because all the restaurants are closed. You might find a pizza shop, but who wants to eat pizza every day?”

Expected to leave on Sunday, Bailey plans to walk to Bangor, then he’ll make his way back home to Virginia Beach.

“I turned 54 in July,” he said. “I’ve served three birthdays on the road. My goal is to be back in Virginia Beach in October. My wife tells me I have to be back by October.

“I don’t want anything printed different,” he joked.

Raising money for a hope shelter

Bailey is not only walking to raise awareness about homelessness, but trying to raise money to build a hope shelter.

“If you open a place, you’ve got to make sure anybody that comes there, that a vet gets first priority,” Bailey said. “Nobody who serves their country should ever be homeless.”

To date, he has raised about $8,000 from this walk

Bailey expected he would raise more money.

“Put it this way — I didn’t place any expectations — because if I did, it would get depressing,” he said.

“I believe this — God told me if I want to build these things around America, I’ve got to walk around America,” he said. “Then as long as I do my part, God will do his part and the money will come — even if it’s from writing a book at the end, and the proceeds of the book building it.”

He knows about being homeless

Bailey knows what it’s like to be homeless. After a struggle with alcoholism, he found himself on the streets of Buffalo, New York, some 34 years ago.

He was able to get himself sober, picked himself up and now works as a contractor.

“There’s no way you can get a job when you smell like you’ve lived outside,” he said. “We’re not even giving them the opportunity to get back on their feet, and that’s what hope centers are all about.”

In Virginia Beach, where Bailey works with a ministry called PIN (People In Need) Ministries, he recalled a time when they were talking about building a shelter.

“Right now, we do only three things a week because limited by renting somebody else’s facilities,” he said.

Those things include a Thursday night Bible study for the homeless, and provide a meal if they’re there for the Bible study; a breakfast on Saturdays and a recovery group; and a brunch on Sundays with a medical clinic set up for the homeless.

“I complained to God too much that nothing was being built and God said I wasn’t do anything but feeding them and clothing them,” he said. “So He put it in my spirit to walk. He said if you want to build things all around America, you need to walk all around America.”

A journey of ups and downs

Along the way, Bailey said the journey has had its up and downs. He said he had his backpack stolen in San Francisco, and lost his wallet in Seattle.

“The north country has been the best part of my journey,” Bailey said. “I can’t stop anywhere without people stopping me, wanting my picture.”

Along the way, he’s met many veterans, he said. 

“I hung out with a homeless vet for five days underneath the steel bridge in Portland, Oregon. And even though people were offering me a place to stay inside, I chose to stay with him and a few other people underneath the bridge. I was shocked that people had no problem inviting me to their house — but yet nobody invited this homeless vet to their house.”

It really opened his eyes to how poorly we really care for homeless veterans, he said.

“It’s easier to pass a city ordinance to make it illegal to sleep outside or your car in the city limits than to try to help them,” Bailey said.

Opening a place at night, giving somebody a bed and kicking them out at 6 o’clock in the morning does not help, he said. People often use the excuse that homeless people are all drunks and drug addicts.  

“I guarantee you — less than 50 percent of homeless people are drunks and drug addicts,” he said. “It’s just an excuse not to help.”

Bailey intentionally grew a beard and long hair to see how churches and people treated him if he looked homeless, noting that people reacted differently when they realized what he he was doing. But churches often didn’t realize he was playing the part and treated him poorly, he said. 

“Very few churches are welcoming, which is very sad,” he said.

Blisters the size of silver dollars

Bailey planned for this walk for more than six months. He said he trained for the walk, but he didn’t train with a backpack.

“When I first started, I had this 80-pound backpack. I had the tent, the cooking gear. I had seven changes of clothes and food. I was self-sustainable. I was relying on me.”

Bailey, at 132 pounds, is not a big man. He walked 19 miles with that backpack and had blisters literally the size of silver dollars on the balls of both his feet, he said. He stopped at a friend’s house that night, because he didn’t want to go back home and have to say good-bye to his wife again, he said.

“Talk about walking on faith — I dumped that backpack and walked into North Carolina with just my walking stick and at the time I was carrying my Bible, my phone, backup charger and my wallet, with only $150 on my card.”

He now carries around only 35 pounds in his backpack. At the time of the interview, he had a few changes of clothes, a jar of peanut butter, a pad, a tarp to keep the pad dry and a blanket. He takes pictures every day and posts notes on Facebook.

Of all the people he’s met, he said there’s one person in particular who stands out in his travels — Charles Lynch.

“I met him in South Carolina, before I got to Myrtle Beach,” Bailey said. “Him and his wife have been my biggest supporters on my walk. This guy has hooked me up with friends of his to stay at around the country. And he puts money in my account all the time to help me. His wife does the emails for the news when I get to the bigger cities.”

God’s chosen apostle for the poor

If nothing else, by walking the perimeter of the United States, Bailey said, “I’ve earned the right to have a voice for the homeless. I’ve earned the right to be God’s chosen apostle for the poor.

“My goal is to start building (a hope center),” he said. “I’m going to raise as much money as I can, as fast as I can, to start the first one in Virginia Beach. Then work my way around the country.”

To find information on his journey, follow him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/leroy.bailey. To donate, go to ServantsofGodMinistries.com.

bfarrin@sunmediagroup.net

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