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The Tail of Troy -- May 25, 2010
SPC Troy Yocum backed by a team is taking on the challenge of raising the needed $5 million by hiking 7000 miles across America while drumming. The journey will take 15 months passing through 30 states and 38 large cities. Troy will have to average over 20 miles a day while enduring each season. The idea for the hike has been evolving since Troy joined the Army in 2001 but it is now when our economy is struggling and military families are in most need that he will put one foot in front of another.
Wigwam is proud to be supporting someone with such great courage and heart. Wigwam has outfitted Troy with a years supply of Wigwam socks as he makes his trip across the great USA. "After speaking with him this morning, he is blister free and very thankful for our product," said Natalie Stangl, Field Marketing Manager at Wigwam.
So, why hike 7,000 miles?
In 2007 Yocum was presented with a challenge by the his friend and event coordinator of KCRF, Ali Omar, to help raise funds for cancer research by attempting the longest drumming Guinness record. All plans were in order to play for the Thunder over Louisville fireworks show kicking off the Derby season when he received orders from the military to report for duty with the 100th battallion/442 Infantry of the pacific coast islands in Iraq and Kuwait for a 13 month deployment.
After that he was sure that he would not make the attempt for at least 15 months. When arriving in Kuwait he got word that Ali had lost his long battle with cancer. He then fought for the opportunity to attempt the record in Ali's honor. He was able to plan the event with the help of his commander and the USO. In order to beat the record he had to play over 120 hours in a row with only taking a 5 minute break every hour. He had to play to recognizable songs, without repeating within 4 hours and only 30 seconds of pause time in between. The performance was going well but the weather turned for the worse and reached over 100 degrees forcing him to cramp up and end his attempt on the second day. After that Troy trained harder but postponed the next record attempt till he lived out another dream: hiking across America to raise money for military families through USA Cares. He took his small idea from 2001 and worked as much as he could on it while overseas. After arriving back home in Louisville on August 6th, 2009 Troy has been working feverishly to push past all obstacles and hurdles in-order to get the project up and running.
Wigwam will be tracking Troy throughout his drum hike and will be supporting his cause in anyway that they can. Check out the Wigwam facebook page and twitter page for more updates on Troy coming up!
See where Troy is headed next - http://www.drumhike.com/amenities.html
Go USA! Go Troy!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sheboygan-WI/Wigwam-Mills-Inc/123568573992?ref=ts&__a=13
http://twitter.com/wigwamsocksusa
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