The story
Carrying two bananas for energy and a bottle of water, a smiling Guy Black set out on his journey to honour Korean War veterans who fought and died in what has been called Canada's "forgotten war."
It was to be a huge undertaking - a 24-hour hour marathon that would take him across three city boundaries - Coquitlam, Burnaby and North Vancouver - and up two mountain summits - Burnaby and Seymour. In planning for two years, the June 21 walk was to raise awareness about people and issues about which Black cares deeply and it coincided with the Year of the Korean War Veteran, marking 60 year's since the Korean War armistice.
With cameras documenting every moment, Black left Sir Frederick Banting middle school in Coquitlam accompanied by several leadership students and New Westminster MP Fin Donnelly as well as army and marine veterans, and members of the Korean community.
The walkers hiked up Burnaby Mountain to SFU for a ceremony, continued to Mt. Seymour in North Vancouver for another ceremony, then, when it turned out they were ahead of schedule, detoured to the North Vancouver cenotaph to honour Donald Hastings, a North Van soldier who died during the war.
The walk concluded with a peace ceremony at Central Park in Burnaby.
The latest
Although he vowed at the time the walk would be his last big project, Black is considering another historic walk in 2014 to mark anniversaries for both the First and Second World Wars, which started 100 years and 75 years ago respectively.
"It would be emphasizing peace," Black said.
