Tulsa Salvation Army Captain Walking 66 Miles On Route 66 In 66 Hours

A Green Country man promises to spend the three days and two nights out in the cold, for a good cause. The experience will help raise money for a growing problem in our area.

One step, and one mile at a time, Captain Ken Chapman is walking to bring awareness to a growing problem in the community – homelessness.

“We're trying to get people the resources they need to get back into self-sufficiency,” Chapman said.

Chapman is the Tulsa Salvation Army Area Commander. He said the agency's Center of Hope House gives more than 325 homeless people a place to sleep each night.

It offers three meals day, which totals about $317,000 meals per year; that's why he started a long journey Wednesday morning.

Salvation Army website

“I'm gonna walk 66 miles on Route 66 in 66 hours,” he said.

Chapman is starting his walk in Claremore, with a goal of raising $66,000.

Chapman said, “It'll bring the reality that there literally are hundreds of people who have nothing to do but to roam the street.”

He said doing the fundraiser during the coldest part of the season adds to the importance because so many don't have a warm place to go in the winter.

For the next three nights, Chapman will sleep outside in a cardboard box.

“I'm gonna brave the cold weather to replicate the conditions that homelessness has to deal with every day in this community,” the commander said.

Chapman said it's not just adults living on the streets, but children, too; making his mission all the more important.

“We're trying to break that cycle,” he said.

Chapman will end his walk Friday at the BOK Center for the Tulsa Oilers Hockey game.

He's also inviting others to walk along with him. You can find out how to do that, or how to donate, here.