From Caro to Lake Ann Camp, seventeen-year-old Matthew Pattullo is running his way, 180 miles across Michigan.
“It’s been a pretty great experience so far,” Pattullo said.
Pattullo runs seven miles every morning and night on trails and through more populated areas like Midland.
“My legs are a lot more tired than I thought they’d be,” Pattullo said.
Pattullo has had support along the way, including his dad who has been biking alongside him for parts of the run.
“We’ve kind of set goals where we want to be along the way,” Mike Pattullo said. “We’ve tried to put in a couple rest days because the people we’ve talked to about doing a crazy long run like this is that you have to put the rest in.”
Pattullo is fundraising for Lake Ann Camp to be able to give children in foster care a chance to go to camp.
The Pattullo’s said Lake Ann had a program that allowed around ten foster children to attend the camp, but the program ended this year, and the camp did not yet have an alternative.
Now with the help of Matthew’s fundraiser “Run for Eternity” and an anonymous donor who matched the first $9,000 raised, more children will have the opportunity to attend the camp.
“As the donations started going up, it just blew us away, he’s basically running at 100 dollars a mile, which is kind of crazy,” Mike said.
Matthew said they have already surpassed $10,000 in donations.
It costs around $600 to send a foster child to camp so with their fundraising around 35 children will be able to attend Lake Ann Camp.
With that, Matthew still has 90 miles to run while raising money.
Matthew will hit his halfway point in Clare on Thursday night.
If all goes to plan, Pattullo should run through Cadillac on Monday July 3rd. He will also make his through Mesick projected on July 5th.
“We were a little bit behind schedule because of the smoke,” Mike said. “We’ve been able to push through every other obstacle, but the smoke stopped us in our tracks.”
The Pattullo’s did not go the seven miles Tuesday night due to the unhealthy air quality levels that are present across Michigan due to Canadian wildfires.
Besides the setback, the rest of the journey has gone smoothly so far.
“Back at home I’m used to seeing the same old same old every day we run through the same town, and pretty much the same roads to have a different route every day is really cool,” Matthew said.
Pattullo has been running since the summer before he started sixth grade.
He is entering his senior year at Caro and has hopes to continue his running career in college.
Matthew said he wants to go to college for camp ministry.
“I first went to Lake Ann two years ago and I was saved there,” Pattullo said. “I’ve been going back ever since. It’s probably one of my favorite places to be.”
Pattullo said he is interested in running an ultra-marathon, which is any race longer than a traditional marathon, in the future.