Steve Fugate of Vero Beach, Florida, had his first walk across the U.S. in 2001.

It all began in 1999, when his oldest son, Steven (Sometimes referred to as Stevie), died by suicide. “For reasons I’ll never fully understand my son ended his life,” he said. He felt the loss. When asked, here’s what he said, “My beautiful, 26-year-old son went down on the beach, stuck a gun in his mouth and ended both our lives.” But here’s what actually happened just before the suicide attempt.

In that same year, Steven was offered a computer engineering job in his hometown of Vero Beach, Florida — an opportunity that was rare in the area. Believing it was worth waiting for, he spent the meantime working in the family business. He was so confident of landing the job, so much so that he gave up his insurance. However, as he was waiting for that, something tragic happened.

Fugate explained that on one particular night, he joined a friend and drank heavily, which was very unlike him. Disregarded the red traffic light and collided with another car. Fortunately no one died, but his car was badly damaged. He later had to do community service and paid fines up to several thousand dollars. As if that wasn’t enough, that week also brought another blow.

The company he was supposed to work for lost its contract and couldn’t employ him. With no job, he was completely crushed. “I told him, ‘This is not the end of the world.’” Fugate said.

Fugate, who was already dealing with a broken marriage and a struggling business that year, decided to help his son pay off his debts while performing his community service.

Since he had always loved hiking, turned over the management and full earnings of his car-cleaning business to him, then set off to hike the Appalachian Trail. But Steven refused to carry out his community service due to shame. As a result, he was taken to jail, bailed himself out with his father’s business money. Now overwhelmed by everything, including his personal failures and the guilt of believing he might ruin his father’s business, Steven took his life.

Fugate was shattered by his son’s death, but he chose to turn that pain into something meaningful. He often explains that he wanted to use his grief as fuel — like energy that could light up and lift others, rather than destroy him.

For that, he started his first walk, carrying a sign with the message “Love Life” to spread awareness for depression and suicide. His mantra became “to mend the broken heart while it is yet beating.” However, another tragedy awaited him.

In 2005, he also lost his daughter, Michelle Fugate Morgan who died of an accidental drug overdose meant to treat her of multiple sclerosis. Completely shattered, he closed down his business and decided to take up walking as a form of therapy. He called it ‘Trail Therapy’. His words? “If I can love my life, anybody can.” “If you love life, you’re not going to end it on your own,” he added.

He also argued that one’s life does not belong to them to take because it hurts others as well. His logic is that such person wasn’t getting rid of their pain but passing it on to those who loved and cared for them. And as a result of his message and movement, it was noted that at least 10 people were dissuaded from taking their lives. One of them being his son’s friend who had gone into drugs and few other things and thought that suicide was the only route to escape. He changed his mind, became sober, and discarded the thoughts of killing himself since then.

Fugate said it usually takes him about six to eight months to walk across the U.S., covering roughly 15 to 20 miles a day and taking a couple of rest days at a time.

In February 11, 2023, he began his ninth trip, after having already walked over 49,000 miles. He started the journey at YeeHaw Junction, Florida, and was headed towards Newport, Oregon. He had this to say, “Everyone has the ability to love life and have happiness most of the time, once they see the foolishness of negatives and deny them admittance into their minds — during all of human existence negatives have never accomplished anything.”

He also wrote a book titled Love Life Walk, which is available on Amazon. As stated in his Amazon biography, “I would not have made it through the loss of both had I not learned to Love Life.” But the question now is, during the trips, how did Steve Fugate sustained himself?

For some time, he’d set up a non-profit organization for the cause, but later stopped and would no longer accept any kind of charity. However, in January, 2020, his friend Brad Rawlins set up a gofundme to support him along the way. Other supports he got were from people from the places he walked to, who gave him snacks and water, while others offered him cash.

Nevertheless, his goal was for the message to get to someone who needs it.