To most, a 500 km walk along some of Ontario’s county and regional roads picking up trash and getting by on the money made from empty beer bottles may not seem like a typical way to remember a loved one.

But to Sherry Welsh, walking from the Backus Heritage Conservation Area in Port Rowan to the Lion’s Camp in Dorset was a perfect way to honour her sister Karen.

“We were best friends, I was her maid of honour; she was mine. We were very close,” said Welsh of her sister Karen Manary Klassen, who, eight years ago, lost her battle with kidney disease at the age of 34. “When I was on my honeymoon (she passed away and) I couldn’t get back to her. I was in the Caribbean and I couldn’t get off the boat and I couldn’t make it back. Ever since I’ve just missed her a lot and felt guilt and I had to deal with it, so this was how I thought we could bring maybe some closure (for me and Karen’s) children too.”

Welsh, a farmer in Scotland, Ontario near Simcoe, set out on a 35-day walk, aptly titled Karen’s Quest, to the Lion’s Camp in Dorset.

She began her walk on April 5 and, with family by her side, walked into the camp last Thursday as a bag piper played her in.

The camp, she said, is the only one in Ontario that caters to those on kidney dialysis and their families.

Manary Klassen and her family were able to go to the camp twice while she was on dialysis.

“Her husband even stressed that she was so relaxed there because she knew that he and the kids were outside playing or boating or having fun instead of sitting in a hospital waiting room,” said Welsh.

The plan started out as Welsh deciding she wanted to clean up the local roadways during the early spring, when her busy farming season had not yet begun.

“Then I thought, well I could walk too and walk far and I have all the time, and I’m the District A-2 Chairman of the camp in Dorset this year and I thought well, why not walk to the camp?” she said.

Welsh’s other sister Lori Manary is currently the assistant supervisor at the Backus Heritage Conservation Area, a place where the three sisters were taken often in their youth, and so the start point of the walk was found.

Originally collecting beer bottles to pay for gas and accommodation expenses on the walk, Welsh said she had to pay very little because of the many accommodating strangers who took her in on her way.

She said every day of the walk, there were two to nine people who would join her.

“I’ve met a lot of people through this and good friends through this,” she said.

Donations also began to pour in, and to date Karen’s Quest has raised over $31,000 for the Lion’s camp in Dorset.

In addition $4,000 worth of empty beer and liquor bottles have been collected or donated, $1,500 alone of which was collected on the walk.

Dorset resident Gary Acker, who contacted the Forester about Karen’s Quest, said that few things touch him like Welsh’s walk has, adding that all empty bottles found during Dorset’s annual litter pick-up earlier this month were donated to Karen’s Quest.

Now back at home, Welsh says the magnitude of what she’s done is starting to sink in.

Donations to Karen’s Quest are still coming in, and Welsh says she hopes to make this an annual event, adding that she wished she could have walked back too.

If you would like more information on Karen’s Quest, contact Welsh at 519-909-9780 or karen’squestapril2008@gmail.com.

Donations can be sent ear marked for Karen’s Quest to the camp directly at P.O. Box 306, 1087 Camp Dorset Rd., Dorset, Ontario, P0A 1E0, or to Welsh at 1634 Windham Rd. 3, RR 3, Scotland, Ontario, N0E 1R0.