99-Year-Old Clarks Grove, Minnesota, Veteran Plans 100-Mile Walk to Raise Money for Salvation Army COVID-19 Relief

At 99 years old, Mickey Nelson still has things he wants to check off his bucket list. He has lived his whole life in Clarks Grove, Minnesota, just north of Albert Lea, and still lives in the house where he was born in 1920. He served in an armored division during World War II, maintaining tanks. As a businessman, he owned a bus business for 58 years and also ran a sand and gravel company. He is a familiar figure on Main Street in Clarks Grove, where neighbors often wave to him as he walks past the hardware store, the post office and The Salvation Army clothing donation box.

Mickey has been troubled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the hardship it has brought to his neighbors. He has seen families whose jobs were furloughed or eliminated, many with no savings to fall back on. According to statistics cited in the release, 700,000 Minnesotans and North Dakotans have filed for unemployment since the start of the pandemic, roughly 20% of the workforce. As many as 40% of the recently unemployed had never before visited a food shelf, but now rely on them to feed their families.

“I know that people are struggling, either from the illness or a job loss from all the businesses shutting down,” Mickey said recently. “I just thought there was something I could do to help.”

Mickey and his daughters developed a “bucket list” idea to raise funds, inspired by a similar effort by a centenarian Englishman who walked 100 laps. Instead of laps, Mickey plans to walk 100 miles by the end of this summer, walking daily through the streets of Clarks Grove. He is calling the effort “Walking to 100” because he will walk 100 miles and because he turns 100 years old next month.

Mickey is asking people to donate money to The Salvation Army Northern Division, which provides food and emergency assistance throughout Minnesota and North Dakota. He has chosen the division to use the funds he raises for pandemic relief. The release states that Salvation Army service centers have been on the front lines of food distribution since the pandemic began, and that grocery distributions have increased as much as 900% in some locations.

Lt. Colonel Lonneal Richardson, commander of The Salvation Army Northern Division, said the division has been working hard to help people in need since mid-March. “Our staff is working overtime and our resources are being stretched like never before,” he said. “But this effort being made by Mickey is truly selfless, and we are grateful for and inspired by his efforts.”

Donations to support Mickey’s walks can be made at SalvationArmyNorth.org/mickey. Information about the division’s pandemic response is available at www.SalvationArmyNorth.org/covid19. According to the release, the division annually helps 325,000 people overcome poverty, addiction and economic hardship through a range of social services, including food for the hungry, emergency relief for disaster survivors, rehabilitation for those struggling with drug and alcohol abuse, and clothing and shelter for people in need. It does this at 68 operation centers in Minnesota and North Dakota.

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