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Saturday, February 28, 2015
By +Scott Leffler
scott.leffler@eastniagarapost.com
Rick Cohen was forced Friday to cut short his plan of walking from Florida to New Jersey.
The owner of the Transit Drive-In Theatre was making the 1,034-mile hike to raise awareness and funds for a small Ohio drive-in, helping the get the drive-in converted to a new digital projector — a $75,000 costs.
Cohen had started the walk on Feb. 6 and planned to walk for about another month. He had travelled 336 miles from Kissimmee, Fla., to Ridgeland, S. Carolina, raising over $7,000 while doing so.
Unfortunately, Cohen says he hurt his ankle early in the walk and, despite resting it for a few days earlier this week, it had been getting worse, rather than better. Rather than run the risk of doing serious permanent damage, Cohen decided to call off the walk Friday, and posted a statement to his personal Facebook page, as well as social media and sites devoted to his business and walk. Cohen's statement follows below in its entirety:
Cohen expects to be back in Buffalo tonight.
He said the suspension of the hike itself does not end his plan to help raise funds for the Ohio drive-in.
scott.leffler@eastniagarapost.com
The owner of the Transit Drive-In Theatre was making the 1,034-mile hike to raise awareness and funds for a small Ohio drive-in, helping the get the drive-in converted to a new digital projector — a $75,000 costs.
Cohen had started the walk on Feb. 6 and planned to walk for about another month. He had travelled 336 miles from Kissimmee, Fla., to Ridgeland, S. Carolina, raising over $7,000 while doing so.
Unfortunately, Cohen says he hurt his ankle early in the walk and, despite resting it for a few days earlier this week, it had been getting worse, rather than better. Rather than run the risk of doing serious permanent damage, Cohen decided to call off the walk Friday, and posted a statement to his personal Facebook page, as well as social media and sites devoted to his business and walk. Cohen's statement follows below in its entirety:
As I write this post, I'm sitting on an Amtrak train near Alexandria, Virginia, heading back to Buffalo. If you've been following my journey, you may recall my mentioning a mild ankle sprain in one of my updates from last week. At first it was just an annoyance, but after each day of hiking, it seemed to get more tender and difficult to walk on.
Yesterday during my hike to Ridgeland, even after having had four days of rest, it became apparent to me that it would not get any better without a prolonged rest in combination with immobilization. Hiking twenty miles each day for the next 4-5 weeks would have been a daily torture which could have had a long term health impact on my right ankle. My left ankle feels fine. The mostly uneven, sloped highway shoulders did not do anything to help my condition as the ankle got steadily worse each day.
It is with great sadness and disappointment that I inform everyone I have discontinued the 1,000 mile walk from Florida to New Jersey. I really wish I could continue on, and probably would if I was closer to the finish line, but realistically there is still another 700 miles of walking left that I simply cannot endure on a sprained ankle.
Thank you to everyone who has followed and supported me throughout this journey. The donations made thus far will all go toward helping the Sidney Auto-Vue with their digital conversion this spring. If you are still interested in donating to help save the Auto-Vue, please visit my GoFundMe page at Drive-In Rescue, using the link in the comments section below this post.
Thank you.
Cohen expects to be back in Buffalo tonight.
He said the suspension of the hike itself does not end his plan to help raise funds for the Ohio drive-in.
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