Backpack Nation Plants its Flag. Long Live Backpack Nation.
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.22.03 | 11:10 AM ET
You’ve got to love Brad Newsham, author of “Take Me With You,” the 2000 feel-good travel book of the year. A year to the day after 9/11, the San Francisco writer announced a plan to dispatch backpackers to give away 10,000 bucks each in developing countries, spreading aid and, more importantly, loads of good karma. He called it Backpack Nation, and it sounded like a pipe dream. Now, Newsham reports on BootBlog, the project is well on its way to becoming a reality. Newsham has established a nonprofit organization and has already collected nearly $7,000. What’s more, he predicts the first backpacker will depart this year.
“I envision that the lore generated by the generous deeds of these ambassadors will capture the imagination of people in every culture, will calm the currently enflamed global conversation, and will foster an era of worldwide peace and prosperity,” Newsham writes. “Stories of wars and violence will be crowded from the front pages by accounts of travelers scouring the world to redistribute wealth and fund miracles-in-waiting.” The project’s Web site has all the details, including information on how to donate and how to apply to become an ambassador.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
