Episode 16 - Looking through windows: a 4,000 mile walk to say I love you. Then 8,000 miles more

Iconoclast of Things

This is the story of how Unbound, one of the midwest's largest non-profits, was formed from the vision of a man with a very different take on charity and giving. In November of 1981, Kansas City Missouri, Bob Hentzen and 3 of his 14 siblings, along with their friend Jerry Tolle, founded an organization known today as Unbound. Bob and his friend Jerry were former missionaries. They used the family Christmas card list to connect families in America with families in Latin America to connect someone who wanted to give help with someone who needed it. Fifteen years later, the 60-year-old Hentzen walked four thousand miles from Kansas City to San Lucas Toliman Guatemala. Then, in 2009, at age 73, he walked eight thousand miles from Guatemala to Chile, traversing the Atacama desert. The boots he wore. These brown, Nike, nylon and leather. The toes have been cut away, giant hole near the heel on one side. Today’s thing is this pair of once hiking boots and today’s episode is “looking through windows; a 4000 mile walk to say I love you. Then 8000 miles more.”