Steps Toward Peace began as a humanitarian outreach effort of two individuals, K.C. Tompkins and Cala VonMuenster, who had overcome many life adversities. In an attempt to show others that emotional traumas,chemical dependency, and mental wellness are factors that affect many persons by not allowing them to see outside of the bonds and restrictions that are placed upon them by their own minds and society's prejudice of those who have struggled with vices of any kind. They set off, on foot, to publicly reach out to anyone in need of seeing the light.
Beginnning their trek on foot caused them to see just how negatively the misconstrued perceptions of strangers can be. While walking,pulling a wagon emblazoned with the Steps Toward Peace insignia, they felt the impact of the judgement first hand. Regardless of who it was that they knew themselves to be many people assumed that they were homeless based upon their chosen mode of foot transportation. People would avoid them on many of the city streets that they encountered on their 450 mile journey. While on the highway, they were swerved and honked at. This treatment made them question their self-worth many times. However, it seemed that at each of their lowest points a chance encounter with a stranger who was curious enough to question them would lead to valuable conversations regarding the state of our nation and societal problems as a whole.
They found that newspapers were very receptive to their cause, and the human feat of walking such distances. While newspaper articles brought about a fair amount of recognition, it did not do much to gain further financial backing as a mission of awareness doesn't provide a practical means of fixing a broken system.
Realizing just how important image and presentation is to most persons in the public, they decided to upgrade their transportation to that of bicycles. They noticed that they were received much more warmly and were able to speak with more people.
They have now turned to Couchsurfing.com as a means of learning more intimately the troubles affecting society today and to discuss practical ideas on how to repair some of the damage for a better future.

Will you be a part of the change for good today?