By Pat Welter

They say you have to walk before you run. Troy Smith begs to differ.

“I have to dream big, I have to,” Smith said from the backyard of his home.

The Apex Friendship Middle School teacher is about to begin a new school year. He is coming off a summer to remember. In thirty-one days he drove over 11,000 miles through forty-eight states.  In each one he’d stop and run an average of four miles.  He’d also meet with local business owners, politicians and patrons at restaurants.  It’s all in support of a dream that came to him while running.

“It’s perfection,” Smith said. “In my mind I see the people walking the halls, I see the people working there that want to make a difference and that’s what we are trying to do.”

Smith is fundraising for a non-profit he founded called the Walking with Grace House. Smith wants to build community centers around the country where people with special needs can get a variety of services, even live when their parents can no longer take care of them.

“I would love a music room, a small gymnasium,” Smith said. “For them to do the things that keep them active.”

Smith’s inspiration falls close to home.

“We all want what’s best for our children,” Smith said. “This is what’s best for Grace.”

Grace Smith is Troy’s daughter and a twenty-one year old senior at Holly Springs High School. At the age of four she was diagnosed with Autism.

“Both my wife and I are in education,” Smith said. “We’ve both been through the training. We know the milestones that you’re supposed to be reaching.  We know when you’re supposed to be making eye contact, and babbling and crawling and walking and Grace was just missing all those milestones.”

“Come on Grace! Put it up,” Troy said to Grace as they played basketball in the drive way.

“Swish,” Troy said as Grace hit a shot from her favorite marked spot on the pavement.

Basketball, coloring, and puzzles are just a few of Grace’s favorite activities. She especially loves to clean and pick up.

“When we are walking around any store [she’ll say] ‘that’s not where that goes’,” Troy said. “Sometimes she can walk past it and sometimes when she’s super focused we’ll be there putting things back where they belong.”

Grace lacks some fine motor skills. She needs help bathing and getting dressed. One area of concern for Troy and his wife Bethany is the fire alarm.

“Grace does not know to leave the house when the fire alarm goes off,” Troy explained. “She hears it, she might even tell us the smoke alarm is going off but she doesn’t leave. Grace can never be alone.”

Grace’s need for supervision is one of Troy’s driving motivations behind making the Walking with Grace House a reality. His journey around the United States started as a white water rafting trip in the Grand Canyon with a friend to celebrate his 50th birthday.  The need to help build a better future for people like Grace ended up evolving it into a cross country tour.  His efforts helped raise over $12,000 and next summer he plans to do it again.

“Next year we are going to do it by region,” Troy said. “I’m going to keep going out and making the connections, but we will do like the whole Northeast next year.”

For more information on Walking with Grace House check out their website: https://walkingwithgracehouse.org/

“Just starting small and we’re going to be there,” Troy said. “I’m not going to say we are going to be Pepsi-Cola, but we are going to be big, we are.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com