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'Forrest Gump' Fan Runs Cross-Country to Fight Poverty

In one of the most famous sequences from the 1994’s Oscar-winning drama Forrest Gump, Tom Hank’s titular Alabaman runs, and runs, and runs, and just keeps right on going, for more than three years.

Barclay Oudersluys won’t be running for that long, but he’s aiming to pull off a monumental feat inspired by the film. For “Project Gump,” the recent University of Michigan grad is putting one foot in front of the other and jogging 3,200 miles from California to Maine as a fundraising effort for The Hall Steps Foundation, an organization that fights poverty across the globe.

“I will be running across America in order to promote and raise money for their cause,” Oudersluys says of the 15-state trek on his fundraising page. “This will entail running about 50K every day for 100 days from L.A. to Maine. Along the way I will try to talk to people I meet to spread the word of their charity and collect donations to support them.”

Oudersluys is attempting to raise $10,000 for Hall Steps. You can donate to the cause here, and follow his trek on Twitter.

In the meantime, run, Barclay, run!