Walk with Mark, for counseling assistance

Mark Minear, Ph.D., psychologist at the Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center

Mark Minear, Ph.D., psychologist at the Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center

Mark Minear, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist at the Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center, walked across Iowa Hwy 30, from river to river, in April and May 2016 to raise awareness and funds for mental health counseling assistance for men and boys. Why? Because men and boys are less likely to seek counseling, and more likely to complete suicide. Mark wants to change that. Read his incredible blog; see index below.

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Media Kit

Media release, itinerary, bio, photos and more information here

Photo Gallery

See the photos and join the community conversation on our Facebook page.

Mark in the news (TV, radio, print)

WHO13 TV, April 20, 2016

Iowa Public Radio, April 27, 2016 (fast forward to minute 31:30)

How to donate

Give online or contact Terri Speirs, Interim Director of Development, tspeirs@mindspiritcenter.org, 515-251-6644

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Read Mark’s daily blog posts

(Check back regularly for more of Mark’s daily blog posts)

Envisioning this Journey: A Walk on the Lincoln Highway

by Mark Minear

As part of my interest and curiosity in history, I have carried a bucket list item over recent years: to walk across Iowa on the Lincoln Highway.  Living for the past decade in a town along the original path of that first transcontinental highway, I have felt the tug of history.

The Lincoln Highway (U.S. 30) was built in the early 1900s to honor perhaps our most beloved president (mine anyway!).  The road was initially proposed in 1912 and pretty much completed coast to coast by 1916 – 100 years ago and one year before my father was born!  Of course it has evolved over the years. Even across the state of Iowa from the Mississippi River at Clinton to the Missouri River just east of Blair, NE, the Lincoln Highway has undergone at least four major developments over this past century.  I am hoping to walk the original path as much as possible, even with some of it still as gravel.

Originally I was simply going to accomplish this task sort of like the chicken crossing the road –
to get to the other side.  But then Ellery Duke, our fearless leader here at Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center, pedaled his bicycle across the United States (a distance close to the entire length of U.S. 30) and he opened up his journey to be a fundraiser for the Center. When over $30,000 poured in to help our Center’s counseling assistance fund, I began to consider my bucket list item as an opportunity to also highlight the needs of those clients who require financial support to have access to emotional support and mental health care.

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Mark Minear

I have a goal to raise $10,000 for the Center in our efforts to provide services for the underserved.  It is a part of our overall mission that has always excited me about the Center – one of the reasons that I wanted to be part of the meaningful work here!

On Thursday, April 21, 2016, I will embark on my 325-mile trek at the Mississippi River.  I anticipate covering about 25 miles per day for 13 days.  (I will be doing a daily marathon, which I intend to walk, not run.)  In the spirit of the Center’s Women Helping Women initiative, please join me in my efforts to help men and boys as well by contributing to the Center’s counseling assistance fund as I walk the original historical route of the Lincoln Highway across the state of Iowa… right past my own home!

And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
–T.S. Eliot

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