 Welcome back to DEI Matters, Conversations with Margaret Cuedo-Thomas, and I am so excited today to have Cooper Katzman with us, who's a rising 12th grader at Arlington High School, who has this amazing story that I want him to share with us today. Cooper, thank you for being here today, how are you? Thank you for having me. I'm doing great. Good. I'm very excited to be here. So I want you to share your amazing story of you doing this 275 mile hike that you raised money for the Anti-Demovation League. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Yeah, so the long trail is a trail that starts at the border of Vermont and Canada, and it goes all the way to the Massachusetts and Vermont border. And like you said, it's 275 miles, and I've done it one time before, and this time I was trying to do it a little bit faster, and I had the idea with this platform I thought I could use to raise money for a cause that affects me personally. And I thought the Anti-Demovation League has a very good overall message and they're a nationwide organization that really spreads a lot of positive and a very good message. And I really liked, I really thought that it was a good idea to sort of take initiative and raise money for them, and I think it was a very, it was very impactful for me, and I think it was a great experience, and I really think it was great to inspire so many people and have so much support, and I got a lot more support than I initially thought, and it was just overall a great experience, and I'm very glad I was able to share it with so many people. That's wonderful. Can you tell me what led you to choose the long trail in Vermont for your journey? Like I said, I had done it one time before, and I've grown up, like my dad has been in the outdoor community for a long time, and I've grown up in this community, and so over the past couple years I've been doing a lot of smaller hikes, and I had done a little small section of it before, and a couple years ago, two years ago, I had done the whole thing with my cousin, and so this trail has really, I've grown up doing this trail and hiking around Vermont, so it felt like a very meaningful trail and a very meaningful area of the, like part of the world to hike in, so. So take me back a little bit. You make this decision to do this hike. When did you make the decision? Like how did you stop prepping for it? I know you just said that you did more smaller trails, but what gave you this idea, like this is what I want to do to raise this money for this great cause? I mean, initially it just started with me and my mom having a small conversation, because I had planned to do this hike probably about a year in advance, and me and my mom, or my mom and I, had had a small conversation about maybe raising some money, because a lot of people who I've known, who have done this trail before, have also raised money and raised awareness for other causes, so I knew it was a platform I could use, and I think me, my mom and I were having a small conversation, and she was just like, oh, the Anti-Defamation League is a very big nationwide organization that you can raise money for, and I was like, oh, that sounds great, and it sort of started as a small thing, and then we sort of, I got in contact with a few people at the organization, and they sort of helped me really make it more, like, create my message and help raise money and set up a portal to raise money for it, so. That's great. So, 275 miles, how long does that take? It takes many people do it every year. It takes people from four days who do it the fastest to 30 plus days, and my goal, I had done it before in about two weeks, and this time my goal was to do it in about eight days, and it ended up being about 30 miles a day, so it was definitely a difficult physical task, but also it was more of a mental task. I was walking about 16 to 17 hours a day. I was tired. I was getting decent sleep, but also it was just hard to be out there by myself. I had my dad out there who was supporting me the whole time, which was great, and also he was showing me message. I was getting messages from all these people with support, people I didn't even know were supporting me and supporting my cause, which was amazing, so. Do you know how many steps you had tracked 30 miles a day? I don't exactly know how many steps, but it was definitely a lot. It was probably thousands and thousands of steps, so. You mentioned something about the mental aspect of that. Can you share a little bit more when you say the mental aspect of walking 30 miles a day? So the mental aspect, I mean, I was by myself for probably 14, 15 hours a day just walking, and a lot of those days it was raining, I was cold, I was wet, I was uncomfortable, and there is every single day, many times a day, I just wanted to quit, and it was just struggling in, like, my inner self, struggling with myself, and trying to overcome that want and desire to quit, and just keep pushing forward, and really the biggest thing was people supporting me, other people, there are people who came out to the trail to support me, my dad supported me, I got messages from people just caring messages who were just, I don't think I could have done it without them, and there would have been no way for me to keep pushing forward if they didn't support me. You said some of the difficulties that you had was it was raining, it was cold, you want to give up, you said sometimes sleep was good, sleep wasn't as good, were there other difficulties that you had when you were doing the trail? I mean, physically it was definitely challenging, I was tired a lot, my legs definitely hurt, but I think I was overall in good shape, I was able to physically do it, but I think definitely the mental challenges, and I was able to actually walk and hike with my dad for a decent, maybe a couple miles a day, and we were able to have good conversations, and just even having conversations about silly little things that didn't even matter, just talking to someone else was great, and that really helped me keep going forward. The other thing that I'm thinking about is, I know I'm a mother, I'm wondering how your mom was feeling that your dad's out there, you're out there, took you all about eight days, so what was that communication with your mom like as you were doing those eight days? Well I think my mom definitely was a little concerned, but she knows, she knew that I was able to do this, she'd seen me go out and do other things similar to this, she knows other people were doing this, and I think having my dad out there supporting me helped made her feel a little bit better about it, but even he said, I mean I was in pain a lot, I was uncomfortable, and he could see that, and it was hard for him to see me in such pain and such discomfort and discomfort, and there are a couple times where he told me, just you don't have to keep doing this, you don't have to keep going, but he knew that it wasn't necessarily his place to make me quit or like make me stop, but he definitely knew that, and deep down inside of me knew it was it was hard for him to watch me struggle like that, but it also was a great experience for me after the fact, I think. How did you feel once you got to the end, like what was that feeling, can you tell us that feeling that you felt? The feeling, so the last three, I think I finished the trail at about midnight, and my dad and I actually got to walk and hike the last 14 miles together, which was really nice, and those last two miles before we got to the end, it was the entire trail was just one puddle, it was just flooded, and I think probably about two miles from the end I just stopped talking, and I kind of got into this zone, got into the flow, and I described it to my dad and a lot of people, it felt like the strength and power from everyone else who had like been walking that trail and who had done that trail was like coursing through me, and I really felt it was a very powerful moment, and when I finished it was just this sense of relief came over me that I was finally done, but when you get to the end there's actually a three-mile hike down that you have to do, so they like, they kind of trick you, they're like, oh you finished, but I still had to hike down three miles, but I got to the car, I slept all the way home, I got home, I slept for probably 15 hours, and then I was just got to relax, so it was a great feeling to finish. That's amazing, can I actually, I should have asked you this before, so what kind of like gear do you have as you're doing this hike? So it sort of varied for me, a lot of people will hike with a big backpack, and I started the first three days carrying all my stuff, and eventually I switched over to just carrying a small little pack with like water and food, so I would meet my dad at all these roads, and he would just give me more supplies, so I didn't have to carry too much, but a lot of people, everyone who's doing this without a support crew, I was very lucky to have my dad out there and supporting me every step of the way, and a lot of people have to carry all their own stuff, so I was very fortunate. So were there any times during those intervals that you caught up with your dad, did you like, you know, change boots, change socks? Yeah, I was able to change socks a lot. My biggest problem was blisters on my feet, so that was probably the biggest obstacle. I had pretty bad blisters on my pinky toes, and so that was definitely just constant discomfort, and I would change socks and I'd tape them, but nothing really helped that much, so it was sort of just do as much as I could, but also have to push through the pain and discomfort. Have to ask this question. Are you planning on doing that again? I mean, when I was on the trail, like, there were many times that I was like, I'm never coming, I'm never coming outside ever again, I'm never coming outside, but after I finished that there was a guy out there who got the fastest known time while I was out there, and people like that in spot, like, I was talking to my dad maybe a day after, I was like, oh, I think I can go out there and get the fastest time, I think I can do it faster, so when you're out there, it's a, it's an inner struggle, it's an inner battle, but everyone, most people, get off the trail and they wish they were back on in a couple days. So one of the questions I have for you, you did this during the school year? I actually started a couple days after, so I started I think June 26th, which was a few days after school, and I actually got to celebrate my 17th birthday on the trail, which was really cool, so my dad and I were able to, I slept in the van, and it was a couple days before the 4th of July, but this town, Stowe in Vermont, was doing their 4th of July fireworks, so I got to see fireworks on my birthday, which is really cool, so it was a special moment. Great, so what's, what's for the future? I mean, I think the future, there's a lot of, a lot of other trails, a lot of outdoor places I can go, I think this trail is definitely a special, special memory for me, and I think I'll definitely go back, but there's many other things, the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, which are 2,000 plus miles each, both definitely are intriguing to me, but I think I have to build up a little bit more. I think a lot of it is, as I mature and grow older, my mental strength is definitely increased, and it's less about the physical and more about being able to deal with challenges and not getting overly upset and handling my emotions very well. I like how you said that this experience has helped you to understand, you've gotten resiliency, you've learned how to pass through that difficulty of wanting to give up, and I think that that's a great message to your peers, that's a great message to me and to the adults of the world that things do sometimes difficult, but if we continue that, there's hope on the other side. Your goal was to raise $1,800, and I think you raised over $6,000. What was that feeling like that you had this one girl goal, but you surpassed the goal? What was your thoughts in regards to, as you said, people supporting you, what does that feel like that you had these people in the world that are like, this is great, we want to support you and not only support you in encouraging words, but we want to support you monetarily. I think the support was honestly one of the main reasons I was able to do this, and I think the money was definitely, in the first couple hours, people were doing, I think I had surpassed my goal, which was amazing, and just having so many people showing support, some people didn't necessarily donate, but some people would send messages and send support, so the money obviously was an amazing, I reached an amazing amount of money raised, but I think people supported in many other ways than just that, and I think it was just, it's great to see so many people be inspired by what I did, and it definitely makes me want to continue down that path of inspiring people with my actions and words. Before we started the segment, you and I were having conversation, and you were saying that there are some colleges that you are interested in, and I was saying that this might be a great way, how we have to tell our story to the colleges. Is this a story that you would be sharing in your entry? I think definitely, yeah, this is probably one of the most impactful moments of my life. I've definitely gained a lot of knowledge, wisdom, I've gained a lot of support, obviously, and I think this is definitely something I want to share. I've been able to share with so many people, and I think, like you said, an entry-level essay or whatever I would be, I'd like to share this with as many people as I can reach, so I think definitely I'd like to share this as much as I can. What are your peers thinking about what you did? What was that feeling when you got home, you got some rest now, your peers know that you're back? What was that conversation like with them? I mean, they all think I'm just crazy, so like they, none of them, I think they all think it's really cool what I did, but none of them are like, oh, yeah, some of them are, a lot of my friends wanted to go out and do something like this, they were inspired to go out and do like a small section of a trail, but a lot of them, a couple of them met me at the end of the trail, and they're like, you're crazy, you're ridiculous. My mom thinks my dad and I are crazy for doing stuff like this, but I think people definitely see this incredible achievement and are very inspired by it, and I think anyone doing something that they're passionate about, some people think it's crazy, but I think people see that passion and they get inspired by it. I'm inspired by what you did because some of the things that you said that going through this and you were talking about the mental aspect of it, and so much that you've learned about yourself and about strength and about resiliency, so I'm really impacted by what you did. I'm very encouraged and it makes me feel like there's things that I think about doing that now, maybe I want to enter in doing also. So what schools are you thinking about? I've looked a lot out in Colorado has been my, like I obviously I really like the outdoors, so the location of Colorado, Colorado Boulder and Denver University have been some of my top choices, but also staying local like BC and UMass Amherst, I've looked at a lot. And honestly, I'm not 100% sure yet, but I think there's just so many great options around here, but also out west. I just love love the mountains love the outdoors. So that's definitely a draw and it's definitely calling a little bit. Are you do you know like what you might want to major in? Um, or is that something that you're still thinking about? I my dad is a teacher and my mom's a social worker. So definitely something in like the humanities education has definitely been very interesting to me. So working with other people, being able to help other people. So sort of what I've been able to do with this, but a little bit more interactive with other people has definitely been interesting. So stuff like education has been very interesting for me. Is there any more that you're going to do with the league and your advocacy in that area or there are other organizations that you might be thinking about that you might want to partner with? Um, I'm thinking I'm definitely if I'm able to do another one of these trails or adventures, I definitely want to try and use that platform again. I think the Anti-Defamation League, I really like their message. They have a very big following and a lot of people know about them. So and they're able to spread that message. And so they were able to take what I said and just broadcast it to a larger audience. And I think I definitely and the people working there, they worked with me. They were great people, very, very helpful. They helped me set up a lot of stuff. So I definitely think I'll continue to work with them if I do another one of these trails, if I can. That sounds good. One last question for you. What are you looking forward to your senior year? I'm looking forward to a lot. Going back to school, seeing my friends. I'm looking forward to the senior soccer season. So sports, I'm definitely looking forward to that. But also just, I mean, enjoying my last year of high school. Enjoy it while I can, but also looking at other future endeavors. So colleges, like you said, and also maybe planning another trip, like another trail, another adventure. So maybe next summer, I'll be able to get out there again and do something like this. Do you think you can get some of your peers to go with you? I think so. I'm actually in at school. We're doing a backpacking class. I'm doing it first quarter. So hopefully I'll be able to go on a little bit smaller and a less extreme version of this, but definitely be able to get outside, get outdoors with a bunch of my peers. Yeah. Mr. Bruno does that. Yeah, Mr. Bruno. Who was that? Three days? He does three days? Yeah, I think so. So I'm excited for that. Yeah, he's great with that. Cooper, thank you for coming on DEI Matters. I really appreciate it. Your story is so encouraging. I am so proud of you. I commend you for doing it. And if you do it again, I know people are going to continue to support what you're doing. Thank you again. Well, that's it for DEI Matters. Conversations with Margaret Cuedo-Thomas, and we hope to see you again.