On Veterans Day, Matthew Shelley walked laps around Isanti from sunrise to sunset, carrying the American flag the whole way.
Shelley, a Cambridge-Isanti High School graduate who still lives in the area, made his flag-bearing trek in solidarity with those participating in the Old Glory Relay, a 62-day crosscountry relay undertaken by the nonprofit organization Team Red, White & Blue.
Team RWB is a national organization with chapters across the country that exists “to enrich the lives of America’s veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity,” according to the organization’s website. The nonprofit includes both veterans and civilians as members. Shelley is a member of the Minneapolis chapter of Team RWB.
The Old Glory Relay began on Sept. 11 in Washington state and ended on Veterans Day in Florida after traveling down the West Coast and through the South. Members of Team RWB, who call themselves Eagles, carried the flag the entire way over the course of 62 days and 4,216 miles. Shelley decided to make his own daylong walk because he couldn’t travel to be a participant in the Old Glory Relay in person.
“I was doing it in support of them,” he said.
Shelley said he found out about Team RWB while participating in another long-distance running and walking event, the Hot Chocolate 15K and 5K. Shelley’s interest in walking and running was initially motivated by personal weight loss, but he was drawn to Team RWB in particular for the opportunity to support veterans, which is an important cause to Shelley.
“My father-in-law was in Vietnam,” he said, “and the way they were treated … I don’t ever want to see that again.”
Between Sept. 11 and Veterans Day, while other Team RWB Eagles were carrying the flag across other parts of the country, Shelley prepared for his Veterans Day walk, often by going around his planned 6.5-mile route around Isanti.
“I carried the flag every single day in some form,” he said.
By the end of the day on Veterans Day, Shelley’s 32.5-mile-long walk left him with large blisters on each foot, but he says it was all worth it.
“When I hit the marathon distance of 26 (miles), I was like, I gotta keep going,” Shelley said.
Shelley says he would like to start a chapter of Team RWB in the Isanti County area.
For more information on the Old Glory Relay, visit oldgloryrelay.org. For more information on Team RWB, visit teamrwb.org. To view Shelley’s documentation of his Veterans Day walk and the 61 days of walking with the flag that preceded it, visit the Facebook page OLD GLORY Challenge.
