Walk Reclaimed

Founder's Story

Heritage & Legacy

A person's life is the intersection of their heritage and their legacy. It is the point in time where all they have received from others, all they have been given and all that makes them who they are; is repackaged and handed off to others, becoming part of their legacy.

Biography

I was born in the Grande Ronde valley of Northeastern Oregon, and lived there until I graduated from college. Leaving the beauty of the Blue Mountains was hard, but I had dreams to pursue. A few years in Portland and then I moved to the San Francisco Bay area to work in Biotechnology. My career took me next to North Carolina, and finally to Southern California. In 2003, after 20 years in Biotech I went out on my own as a consultant and facilitator.

Heritage

Northeastern Oregon will always be home to me. My parents, my grandparents, and their grandparents lived there. I never met my great-grandfather Hulse, but I have his name, his Bible and his gold watch. I don't know much about him other than he was a teamster who drove a six-horse team hauling freight through the rugged mountains, and that my father described him as the finest man he had ever known.

My grandfather Hulse was a gentle farmer, rancher, outdoorsman. When I was about 12 years old I learned he had been a soldier. I saw a certificate in his basement with a picture of Lady Liberty sitting on a throne holding a sword with which she touched the shoulder of an American Dough-boy. It expressed the gratitude of the French government saying that Hugh Hulse served with honor and was wounded in action. I ran upstairs and found my grandfather sitting in his big leather chair. I asked, “Granddad, were you in the Army?” All he said was, “Yes, but that was a long time ago.” The next mention of his service was the bugle playing Taps and as they folded the flag that had draped his coffin. I later found that he had written a book about his experiences in the First World War; it was still in a three ring notebook in his own handwriting when he died. We had it printed and I re-read sections of it when I want to see the world through his eyes.

My mother's father was also a farmer. And a writer who publishing a few books of local history, stories of people and places. He had a way of recognizing the contributions of ordinary people and recording them for all of us to see and learn from. He and my grandmother were known for their hospitality, taking people in when they had nowhere else to turn.

I am also proud of my parents, and feel very fortunate for the childhood they provided. One day when I was a little boy I was in a local gas station buying a candy bar when a man looked at me and said, “You're Gifford and Betty's boy aren't you?” I remember standing just a little straighter, knowing I had something to live up to. My father loved music and played the banjo, among other things. Years ago I wrote a song for him, which I later sang at his funeral. The chorus ended with the following phrase, “It's a heritage that I'll pass on, a legacy of joy, as a father plays his music on the heartstrings of his boy.”

There were other people, not part of my family, that helped shape my life. Mr. Barlow was 80 years old when I was born. He was a man of many accomplishments but what I remember is how on Sunday, when the church service ended a line of children would form to shake that old man's hand. He would look you in the eye and talk to you just like an adult. But before he shook a child's hand he would hide a pink wintergreen candy in his own palm and secretly pass it with a twinkle in his eye. Mr. Barlow showed me how to love children.

Mr. Kernan gave me my first job. He was a watchmaker who ran a variety store in town, and when I was about 12 or 13 he paid me 35 cents an hour and free candy from the counter. Looking back I realize that I was probably more trouble than I was help. He didn't need me, but he knew I needed him. While I never heard him talk about it I had been told he started a children's home. Recently, I came across the following statement on the website of Christian Children's Ranch just outside Boise, “In 1946, Arnold & Eva Kernan saw the need for a home for homeless children and began the Boise Christian Children's Home (Now the Christian Children's Ranch).” Mr. Kernan showed me what it meant to care for those who needed help.

Legacy

With so many people pouring their lives into mine, how can I help but pass it on? I tell stories to my grandkids, some of them them are the same ones my grandfather told me. I have worked with youth most of my life, through church youth groups and as a scoutmaster for over 20 years.

Recently, I have become aware of the horrors of human trafficking. Many people have no idea that it is happening all across our country, but both boys and girls are being sold for sex. Any case of trafficking is an outrage, but what struck me was that when victims are rescued there is no place for the boys to go. To survive sex trafficking and then have no place to go, no place to heal, that is unthinkable and something must be done. That is why we created Walk Reclaimed. Our goal is to create a home for these boys, a place to call their own, a place to reclaim their lives, a place to heal.