Col. Brad Smith's goal is to hike 2,174 miles in 100 days, but he has already traveled a much more treacherous path than the Appalachian Trail.
Smith has colon cancer. He’s been fighting the disease since doctors diagnosed it in December 2004, a time when they warned he’d only live another six months.
“I said to them, ‘I don’t accept that’,” said Smith, an active duty Army officer stationed at the Pentagon and an auxiliary police officer with the Fairfax County Police Department. “I want to hike the Appalachian Trail.”
Smith knew something was wrong before he walked into the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C. He had been suffering from cold sweats and other symptoms while serving in the Middle East. When he returned to the states and saw a doctor, they found the late-stages of colon cancer that had already spread into his liver.
“Talk about turning your world upside down,” said Smith.
His cancer has brought him in and out of the medical center for the last 14 months. Smith considers the military his family and attributes his survival to the medical care he has received.
“I cannot be more grateful for what the army has done to keep me alive,” said Smith.
Smith decided to fulfill his dream of hiking the Appalachian Trail while raising money at the same time. Fund raising seemed like a perfect fit for his task, he said, so he set out to find a worthy cause for his charity.
Smith is raising money for the American Patriot Scholarship Fund (APSF), which helps children of enlisted military personnel who have died while in active service. The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) created the fund after Sept. 11, 2001. When Smith discovered the program, he knew it would be the perfect recipient of money generated by his ambitious hike.
“The military takes care of its own,” he said.
WHEN SMITH SAW young soldiers coming into Walter Reed with missing limbs and other serious injuries, he began to think of the soldiers he wasn’t seeing. He said he felt compelled to help out.
“What about the families who have lost their major breadwinner,” said Smith. “I’ve got to do something for them.”
Jessica Walters-McCarthy received APSF's $4,000 grant in 2005, and she said it has allowed her to do so much with her college career. She wanted to attend her late father’s alma matter, the University of South Carolina, but expenses were high. McCarthy is from Pensacola, Fla., and out-of-state tuition and living costs exceeded what her academic scholarship through the university would cover. She said the APSF is what let her attend her dream school.
“That little bit of extra money really makes a difference,” said McCarthy. “It’s also helping me go study abroad.”
Since the award money is a grant, students never have to pay it back. The APSF has awarded scholarship money to 100 percent of the applicants since its inception. The MOAA manages the fund and Cindy Amos, development director for the MOAA and its main fund raiser, said all of the money ends up in students’ hands.
“We take no overhead,” said Amos. “We’ve been around. It’s a pretty solid program.”
APSF has not had many applicants though, which so far, has been a good thing for the fund’s distribution. The charity had less than 40 applicants this year, and less than 30 last year.
The MOAA guarantees the award money will never fall below $2,500. Since the Defense Manpower Data Center in Alexandria estimates there are about 17,500 children of deceased military personnel in America that fall within the scholarship’s criteria, so there is room for application numbers to increase. This is why Smith is asking for help. He wants to make sure the funds are there to distribute to all of those who apply.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” said Amos. “My job is to raise as much money as we can so we can help everyone.”