Partway through the 700-kilometre Island Walk this past spring, 85-year-old Betty Hope-Gittens felt like sitting down and taking a rest among the beauties of Prince Edward Island.
But there was not a bench in sight.
So, walking poles in hand, she went up to the first house she could find and knocked on the door.
“I said, ‘May I please sit on your front steps? I’m so tired.'”
Not only did the homeowner let Hope-Gittens take a load off; she brought her two lobsters to eat.
Further along the walk, Hope-Gittens saw a man selling antiques and asked if she could take a break and sit in one of the chairs on his lawn.
“On both occasions, both these people welcomed me. The P.E.I. people are particularly gracious — kind, you know,” she told CBC News.
But they can’t be expected to host everyone who happens to walk by with sore feet on the increasingly popular trek.
As the days went on, and she continued to walk the trail 25 kilometres at a time, Hope-Gittens got an idea. She would go back home to Ottawa and raise money for benches to be placed along the trail. She’d call it Adopt a Bench.
Three months later, she’s walking the walk — at least figuratively. About 20 benches are being built on P.E.I. — at a cost of about $200 each — and installed along the trail. The benches will have dedication plaques to recognize people chosen by the donors.
Hope-Gittens is hoping to raise money for about 10 more.
Betty Hope-Gittens, an 85-year-old from Ottawa, is on P.E.I. to do the Island Walk — a 700-kilometre trek around the Island. She’s fundraising for two causes dear to her, but also grieving her son, who died in February. She tells CBC’s Laura Meader why she’s doing it, and who she’s thinking of.
“When you see a need — well for me, I need to address it. And I was addressing this need, not just for me, but for other walkers to come.”
The 700-kilometre P.E.I. walk was modelled on Spain’s 800-kilometre Camino de Santiago, which Hope-Gittens walked the year she turned 80 as a fundraiser for not-for-profit long-term care homes in Ottawa.
Its path includes much of the Confederation Trail, where the province has already placed some sitting areas, but it also includes sections along busy highways and back roads. Some of the new benches would need to be placed on private property to keep walkers safely away from passing traffic.
Bryson Guptill, who created the Island Walk in 2019, said landowners have been open to the idea of placing benches at the edge of their properties.
“I’m hoping we can get more people to come forward because we have at this point more people donating benches than we have people deciding they’re going to put them on their property.”
Guptill hopes the benches will encourage more people to take the Island Walk.
“It’s great to have a place to eat lunch or to stop and rest, and that’ll make people even more comfortable with the idea that you can stop and catch your breath… 700 kilometres is a long way.”