Lots of people deserve, and often get, a second chance, Michael Weber noted.
“Take me,” he said. “I’ve had a second, third, probably fourth chance.”
His focus this summer is to serve those hoping for a first chance — at life.
Weber, 29, left Iola Monday morning following a weekend stay here during his 2,400-mile “Mike’s March.”
Weber left his hometown of Huntington, W.Va., July 7 and is en route to Los Angeles.
The purpose of his cross-country trek is to raise awareness and dollars for the March of Dimes, a national organization dedicating to improving the health of babies by preventing premature births, birth defects and infant mortality.
Weber recalled the impetus for his journey, a plane ride home after serving in Iraq in 2011.
He was stopped in Germany when a medivac helicopter landed at the airport. On board the chopper was a young mother, presumably the wife of a soldier, and her premature baby, clinging on life support.
“That planted the seed,” Weber told the Register during a brief stop west of Iola Monday morning.
THE WALK was pushed onto the back-burner upon Weber’s return home.
His wife was about to file for divorce, taking his two daughters, ages 6 and 4, in the process.
Weber’s work — and his attitude — suffered.
“I wasn’t the soldier I was supposed to be,” he said.
Weber, who had ascended to the rank of staff sergeant after four years in the Army, called his discharge a “mutual divorce. It was classified as a general discharge under good conditions.
“It wasn’t a dishonorable discharge, but it wasn’t an honorable discharge, either,” he said.
