In 1996 Bill McIntosh and John Cullen skated across the United Stated from California to Florida on inline skates for education and literacy programs and for environmental education. Bill had been cleaning a couple of rivers in Vermont for a senior project for his college and was blown away at all the trash and the state of affairs of one of the most beautiful, cleanest and greenest states in the USA ....and it was in no way clean and its rivers were quite polluted with plastic and trash and hurricane trash debris even then.
The river in town was filled with trash, recyclables, bikes, bed frames, metal, glass, bottles and cans, cardboard, refrigerators, tires, cars, stoves, fans, farming equipment, car parts..... new and old .. Everywhere that Bill McIntosh traveled to in his adventures as a young man the rivers were in a state of poor condition. That year he was in Nashville, Eugene Oregon and Los Angeles, Boston, Ft Lauderdale, Connecticut and New York playing semi pro hockey or on family trips or non profit work trips and he saw the same thing.
Choosing to do something about it .....Bill obtained 35 plus sponsors and raised money to Skate Across America and John Cullen from Rhode Island joined him and Dave Foster afterwords
Side note: Later in 1997-1999 Bill helped build The KIDS ECOLOGY CORPS IN FORT LAUDERDALE FLA with former CEO of Budget Rental Car Leonard Solomon in an attempt to keep the dream of leaving the world a better place for our kids and grandkids.
Then AWP came along and Bill McIntosh saw it as an opportunity to help families find closure and get back involved with his original mission .. cleaning up the rivers of the USA and abroad.
This is a video about that skate across America .. the dream... the vision .. the work that went into it and the skate itself. It taught everyone in the group the meaning of persistence and determination and NO QUIT. This is the first time any of these pictures have ever been seen by the public and most were taken on a thrown away Kodak camera from back in 1996 .
After the skate across America the team put it behind them and never looked back. But things in life seam to come FULL CIRCLE and this trip is a reminder of that mission that was started so long ago.. 28 years to be exact... and its finally "an idea whose time has come" as Leonard Solomon used to say. "
On October 5th of 2022 Bill McIntosh and Adventures with Purpose and Down Under Dan Diving and Recovery Teamed up on the Donnie Messier Case in Waterbury VT and they ere able to find Donnie's Red F150 in the Winooski River in the deepest section of the river right behind the state offices and on the road that Donnie traveled 1000's of times to go home and or to meet friends for a beer on the river. This was a 16 year cold case.
We hope you enjoy this mission this story this " idea whose time has come ... "
LETS BRING THEM ALL HOME
LETS LEAVE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE AND GET THE CARS AND TRASH OUT OF OUR RIVERS SO OUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS AREN'T LEFT WITH THIS MESS .
#SKATE ACROSS AMERICA
#BILLMCINTOSH
#GOINGFOR IT
#NEVER QUIT
#MAKINGADIFFERENCE
#AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME
#FULL CIRCLE
#3000 MILES ACROSS AMERICA
#40days
#RIVER CLEANUPS
#REMOVING CARS FROM RIVERS
#CLEANING UP OUR COUNTRIES WATERWAYS
#MISSING PERSONS IN CARS
#ADVENTURESWITHPUROSE
#DOWN-UNDER & RESILIENCE SEARCH AND RECOVERY