Steve Lux, operations manager of Awesome RV in Chehalis, stands in front of an RV with Chris and Ashley Bailey. Awesome RV donated the use of a camper for the Baileys as they walk 500 miles to raise money for education.
Operations manager of Awesome RV in Chehalis, Steve Lux, stands with Brennan and Ashley Bailey. Awesome RV donated a camper to be used by the Baileys as they walk 500 miles to raise money toward higher education.
Tonya and Chris Bailey will participate in the 500 mile walk for education, helping to raise money for higher education for students. Chris, who is the president at Lower Columbia College, will donate his share to the school's student services fund which allocates small scholarships to students at risk of dropping out due to financial constraints. Tonya will drive the RV donated by Awesome RV in Chehalis.
One Chehalis family will be hitting the pavement in June to raise money for local efforts focusing on college education.
They plan to walk 500 miles for the cause.
The Bailey family will start its journey on June 27 and will walk from Orick, California, to Chehalis.
Brennan Bailey, a current board member of the Chehalis School District, said the idea, after careful planning, came to fruition about a year ago. The mileage will vary in length each day. The shortest stretch the Bailey family will walk is 8 1/2 miles, while the longest day will cover 34 miles.
Bailey will be joined on the walk by his father, Chris, his wife, Ashley, and his mother, Tonya, who will be driving a camper donated by Awesome RV in Chehalis.
Steve Lux, operations manager of Awesome RV, said the business is happy to loan the RV for a good cause.
“Heidi (Pehl, the owner), is very community orientated and it just felt right,” Lux said of the donation. “We’re absolutely 100 percent behind it and I think it’s great for the community.”
The ultimate goal is to raise $5,000, which will later be allocated to three different causes, all centered on college education.
Brennan will be donating his portion to fifth-grade students at Olympic Elementary School in Chehalis to get the students thinking at a young age about pursuing higher education.
After the district implemented programs at the middle school level to get students college and career ready, Brennan plans to take it further by planting the idea with students even earlier.
“I hope that by getting students thinking about and preparing for college at a young age, we will be able to maximize the amount of students in our community who will be career and college ready when their time comes,” Brennan said, adding that the students will later progress into the new programs at the middle schools to be further prepared.
The money raised by his wife, Ashley, will go toward a scholarship for a female student at W.F. West High School looking to pursue a career focusing on science, technology, engineering or math. Ashley will soon be graduating from the University of Washington and plans to attend Pacific University’s School of Optometry in August.
After taking a class in college, Ashley got excited about helping other women, and this gives her an opportunity to do just that.
“I really want to empower women,” she said. “... I graduated from W.F. West, so I thought it was perfect giving them scholarships to go to college.”
The money raised by Brennan’s father, Chris, will be donated to the Lower Columbia College Foundation Student Services Fund, which allocates small scholarships to students who are at risk of dropping out due to financial constraints. Chris is the president of the college, located in Longview.
The trip will last a total of 22 days and will conclude at Awesome RV, a main sponsor of the event. Although the trio is walking “here and there” to prepare, Brennan said the most important part is to mentally get ready for the long journey ahead.
Brennan, who will be a teacher at Kessler Elementary in Longview next year, said he is looking forward to what lies ahead and had already started collecting donations from community members.
