BALTIMORE — A solitary pontoon boat now docked in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor has become Darren Hayes home away from home, and each day that he wakes up and begins to captain the craft, he’s a man on a mission to navigate what’s called America’s Great Loop—-a 5500-mile quest from Florida to Canada and back.
WATCH: Pontooning it forward: 5500-mile journey benefits Ronald McDonald House
“I started in Florida right around the Tampa area and went south down to the Okeechobee and across Florida in the southern region,” said Darren, “I went up the East Coast all the way here now to Baltimore primarily on the ICW—-the Intracoastal Waterway.”
This isn’t the first time Darren has taken on a similar test of self-endurance.
“I started in Florida on a 1948 John Deere tractor, and I drove it 10 miles per hour all the way to New Buffalo, Michigan,” he recounted.
That raised $31,000 to help out a buddy whose 5-year-old daughter, Alyse, was battling brain cancer, but the young girl didn’t survive and her father refused the donations asking instead that they be given to an organization that had housed and fed them during their ordeal—-the Ronald McDonald House.
“I made 22 thousand dollar a year at the time and I’m guessing he didn’t make much more and the man turned down 31 thousand dollars,” Darren told us, “That, to me, is quite a telling story about the individual he was and his appreciation for the Ronald McDonald House.”
While Darren’s original philanthropic journey began all in trying to help a friend and his ailing daughter, since that time during his travels, he’s found other cases, which continue to inspire him.
On this journey, he is honoring a survivor, naming the boat after Birdie Rey of Chicago.
“Her being born at one pound, five ounces at 24 weeks old the the perseverance she had to make it through. It’s an absolute miracle and her family was supported by… I’m sorry…” paused an emotional Darren.
You might have guessed it.
It was the Ronald McDonald House, and if you want to follow Darren on his journey or you want to make a contribution, you can do so at makinwake.com
“A hundred percent of those donations that go to those links go directly to the Ronald McDonald House,” Darren assures us, “It doesn’t go to fuel. It doesn’t go to expenses. That is all paid for by my sponsors that are on the exterior of this boat and myself."