BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY DIANA BOWLEY Danny Garcia of Leesburg, Va. took a break Friday night at the Brewster Inn in Dexter before his final leg of his 500-mile walk to raise funds to provide water for Burkina Faso in West Africa. There, Garcia met with Dexter Regional High School students involved in the local Seeds of Peace organization, including Mike Ellis. Buy Photo

DEXTER, Maine — He has walked 500 miles on foot since May 11 to promote peace while raising funds for the Barka Foundation, an organization working to provide well water to residents of Burkina Faso in West Africa.

Danny Garcia of Global Walk, a former Marine who has walked more than 25,000 miles on foot across five continents for peace and for various humanitarian projects over the years, ended his latest walk today at the Unitarian Universalist Society church in Bangor. He has raised about $25,000 for the project.

Garcia, who started his walk at the Burkina Faso Embassy at the United Nations in New York, stopped Friday at the Brewster Inn in Dexter, where he met with members of Seeds of Peace from Dexter Regional High School.

“I’m always walking for causes. I love to walk and it gives me an opportunity to get rid of the garbage in my mind; it’s very refreshing for me,” Garcia told the students. At the same time, it gives him the opportunity to educate people about his humanitarian efforts and to spread peace and love, he said.

“Everybody that I’ve met wants to be loved,” he said.

Garcia praised the local members of Seeds of Peace for fostering good relationships and encouraged them to spread their message that wars should end and peace should prevail.

“I would like this to be the beginning of something,” Garcia said of the meeting with the students. He urged them to listen to people and not to be concerned about making mistakes.

The students were encouraged to join Garcia in Bangor on Saturday and to attend his July Fourth celebration concert in Washington, D.C.

Garcia and his fundraising companions Ina and Esu Anahata of the Massachusetts-based Barka Foundation walked into Bangor from Hermon on Saturday evening, just ahead of a drenching thunderstorm. A crowd of about 50 well-wishers met them on Main Street by near the Bangor Waterfront Park, and accompanied them to the Unitarian Universalist Church on Park Street.

BDN writer Meg Haskell contributed to this report.

dianabdn@myfairpoint.net

876-4579