Article from today's local Charlotte paper..
He envisions more hiking in his future
Charlotte Observer (NC)
July 24, 2006
Bill Irwin is the only blind person to have hiked the entire Appalachian Trail. The former Burlington, N.C., resident has since parlayed that experience into a book and a motivational speaking career. Staff writer Jennifer Rothacker spoke with Irwin, 65, who lives in Maine with his wife, Debra.
Q. Are you still hiking?
Not really because I don't have time. The last year and a half, we've been adopting a little girl. That's taken a tremendous amount of my time. She's a (12-year-old) girl we met at our church. She's in the DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) system. Amanda's what we call a difficult, high-intensity, high-energy child. Which means her behavior is less than what most people would desire when adopting a child.
They placed her in our care, and two months later took her away from us. We're in the process of fighting the system to be reunified with our little princess.
Q. What happened?
We have a different lifestyle. We're vegans, we eat no animal products, and we're Christians. We're committed to spiritual activities. They (DHHS) couldn't tolerate that. They didn't like that when she had a temper tantrum we'd pray over her and that would calm her right down. They thought it was some sort of voodoo or cultish practice.
They held a kangaroo court, took her away. We haven't been able to contact her since. It's devastating to all of us. We talked to the governor today and he's investigating it.
Q. Do you have other children?
I have three grown children; my wife has none. We felt it was a good investment, the only chance this little girl would have for a good life.
Q. Are you hoping to resume hiking?
Since this stress with Amanda, we've been taking weekends to reintroduce ourselves to fun activities. Last weekend we camped out at a lake, canoed.
We're in the middle of hiking the Finger Lake Trails. That's only 600 miles; we're about halfway done with it.
Q. You used a Seeing Eye Dog, Orient, during your Appalachian Trail hike. Do you still keep a dog?
I have a fairly new one, just turned 5. He's my first non-shepherd. He's a cross between a black lab and a golden retriever. Colby.
Q. Have you re-hiked any parts of the Appalachian Trail?
Oh, yeah, I've done a lot of sections over again. I've also done trails all over the world. The Appalachian Trail was 2,168 miles. Since then I've done another 5,000 miles.
Q. What's your motivational speech message?
If I can do it, anybody can.
# # #