MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — When Zachary Cooper laid down to sleep one night earlier this year, the local resident and avid outdoorsman made a decision that would shape his life.

“One night in March earlier this year, I was laying in bed and couldn’t go to sleep, like something was weighing heavily on me,” said Cooper Wednesday in an interview with The Union-Recorder. “I don’t know if it was intuition or the Holy Spirit talking to me or whatever, but I just got this idea that I needed to hike the Appalachian Trail before I may not be able to or capable of it … I actually called my dad at 2 a.m. that night (my dad is pretty much my best friend), and he was like ‘Dude, it’s late, hang up the phone’ … I called him perpetually over the next week and said ‘I’m doing it. I’m doing it.’, and he said ‘Alright, it sounds like I can’t talk you out of it’.”

For most of the past three months, Cooper has been mentally and physically preparing to walk the Appalachian Trail, one of the longest continuous hiking trails on earth. Rather than completing the trek for himself, however, the recent Georgia Southern graduate will walk in support of a higher cause. 

“I knew [the AT] was something I wanted to do, so I started really thinking about an organization that I could make my mission about,” he recalled. “At first I was thinking of doing a walk for the wounded with [wounded veteran support organization] the Wounded Warrior Project. I started thinking about something that had weighed heavily on my heart, and I knew that my cousin, Kylie, was sponsored by an organization called Jay’s Hope in Macon … I wanted that to be a part of this mission, and I decided I was going to ‘Hike 4 Hope’ for the Jay’s Hope Foundation.”

Founded by husband and wife Jason and Cindy Gaskins after their 5-year-old son, Jay, lost his battle with cancer, for the past 12 years Jay’s Hope has provided emotional and financial support to Georgia families of children battling cancer. When Kylie was diagnosed with a rare type of bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma at age 4, she began a four-year journey through treatment and recovery with help from the organization.

“More than anything, it’s about support and love for those kids,” Cooper said about Jay’s Hope. “It’s about giving them a community that’s there to lend an ear, give a hug, or even a drop-by visit in the hospital. I felt that they instilled a sense of spirit into Kylie when she was going through that, and having other kids around her really helped her feel normal. When she was walking around on a crutch through her elementary school, she thought she was an outcast, but she’d go there and feel completely normal.”

In addition to raising awareness for Jay’s Hope and the work it has done for more than 800 families since its founding, Cooper has dedicated the past three months to raising funds for the organization. Through several drives in the Georgia Southern library and donations from his website, ahike4hope.com, the through-hike hopeful has raised more than $4,000 in donations for the Jay’s Hope Foundation and plans to raise as much additional money as possible before completing his hike. 

After being given just a 10 percent chance to live and surrendering one of her legs to Ewing’s Sarcoma, Kylie has been in remission for five years and is living life as an otherwise healthy teenager. In her time since leaving Jay’s Hope, Kylie has made a habit of attending events thrown by the organization to share her story with children who are not yet in remission, and to make them feel at home in the same way others did for her. 

As he embarks on his nearly 2,200-mile trek later this summer, in which he will climb the equivalent of 16 Mt. Everests in elevation, Cooper will carry a special reminder to remember why he started his trek.

“It’s a little corny, but I’m getting a yellow ribbon of the number ‘4’ cut out to put on my backpack,” he said. “In times where it’s a torrential downpour for five days, or I have blisters and my feet are killing me, or I just slipped on a rock and hit my elbow, I’ll get to look at that.”

Zachary Cooper plans to leave for Maine to begin his Appalachian Trail through-hike next month. For more information ad to donate to the Jay’s Hope Foundation, visit Cooper’s website at https://www.ahike4hope.com/ or call 678-898-0245.