MOULTRIE, Ga. — Kim Denmark got a taste of Moultrie hospitality, and she was very grateful.

Denmark is walking across the country to raise awareness of homeless veterans. On Friday, she was passing through Moultrie on Veterans Parkway and squatted to tie her shoe. A motorist immediately stopped to make sure she was all right.

After that, she caught the attention of Regina Wright, a clerk at the Raceway on Veterans Parkway at Main Street, who offered her a Gatorade and a place to cool off.

“She had the flag,” Wright said. “I knew it had to be something good. … I didn’t know it was for the veterans, but I’m glad it was.”

Denmark said she started walking more than 100 months ago following an epiphany. She was a successful businesswoman in Ohio. Then she fell ill.

“We don’t know what it was, but it did take all the strength out of my legs. I was very weak and getting worse,” she said.

Denmark said she made a deal with the Lord: If he healed her, she’d do anything.

She said what he told her to do was to walk.

“My initial walk was about the homeless,” she said. “I started interviewing them. If I [talked with] 10 [homeless people], three were veterans.”

Her ministry became more focused.

“They don’t have a voice,” she said, “not the ones in the gutter. They’re dirty. They smell. They don’t make sense when they’re talking.”

Post traumatic stress is widespread and drugs are common.

“Crack is nothing,” she said. “That’s just normal.”

As she passes through towns, she finds the homeless. They’re the ones who won’t look at her. She’s made contacts with groups that serve veterans and those that serve the homeless. When she identifies someone in need, she tries to hook them up with the people in the community who are trying to help.

“The beauty of it is the results,” she said. “In Tallahassee I was able to get two men out of the woods.”

Denmark said she’s not raising money, only awareness, although her website, kimdenmark.org, does have a place where supporters can donate. 

On that website, she’s posted photographs from her travels across the country — 16 states so far. She’s hoping to make it to Washington, D.C., next year.

“We have a new president, and hopefully Mr. Biden will listen to me,” she said.

She dreams of establishing a facility just for veterans, where those who have fallen through the cracks can find help 24 hours a day, where they can stay on a self-sufficient campus.

“It’s all about love,” she said.

Lenah Allen of the Thomasville Times-Enterprise contributed to this report.