Brad Hathaway has been logging miles he’s walked since 1988

MATTAPOISETT — When Bradford Hathaway’s doctor told him back in 1988 to start exercising, Hathaway started walking.

He’s been logging those miles ever since.

And 32 years later, he’s walked over 24,000 miles. It’s the equivalent of nearly walking around the world. In fact, he’s only 100 miles short of the 24,901.

“This is my main walkway,” the 88-year-old tells a Standard-Times reporter as he steps out from his driveway Friday morning and starts walking along Acuoot Road. He uses a walker equipped with a seat these days so he can stop and rest when he needs to. He walks around his neighborhood usually in the mornings, heads down to Harbor Beach, and ends up down at the Town Beach where he sits for a spell before heading back home.

“Back in the ‘90s I jokingly said I would probably get around the world by 2008. I never gave it another thought until this year,” Hathaway said.

Then a friend of his, Carl Sharpe, pointed out recently that the number of miles Hathaway has logged almost puts him as having walked around the world.

“I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it,” Hathaway said, adding his diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease eight months ago might literally stop him in his tracks.

But then he got an idea to keep walking.

“As things went on and I got closer to the goal, I thought this would be a good way to raise money for the Mattapoisett Land Trust,” he said. “The stimulus is there now to keep going.”

The MLT lost one of its biggest fundraising events this year because of the coronavirus pandemic — Harbor Days. The MLT is looking to acquire the area near Aucoot Road at then end of Bowman Road known as the Santos Farm to protect it from development. The Old Aucoot District includes nine MLT preserves for a total of 307 acres. This property features four miles of hiking trails running through woods and freshwater wetlands, with crossings at several brooks.

A GoFundMe Page has been set up to raise $24,901 for the walk that Hathaway will soon complete. He’ll walk the final mile on Oct. 3 at 10 a.m. Well-wishers are encouraged to gather at Bowman Road and cheer Hathaway on as he walks the last mile back to his home on Aucoot Road.

Because of the pandemic, members of the MLT want well-wishers to wear masks and maintain social distancing etiquette.

As Hathaway walks along Aucoot Road, he points out the home where his in-laws lived after they moved from Braintree. Hathaway, who calls himself a Sconticut Neck kid from Fairhaven, tells the story of how he met his wife, Priscilla, while a student at Fairhaven High School.

“She sat in the front row in the front seat. I was in the fourth row in the front seat. I saw the new girl and I told my dad that I met the girl I was going to marry,” Hathaway said. He told his dad this news while his dad was shingling the roof. “He told me later that when I told him this, he almost fell off the roof. I was only 16,” Hathaway said.

Hathaway lost Priscilla on April 20, 2019. They had been married almost 65 years. His sons David, 64, Joshua, 60, and daughter Jane, 62, keep close to the homestead and take care of him.

As do his neighbors.

“How many more miles, Brad? We’re rooting for you,” says a neighbor also out on a morning jog.

“I’ve never seen this road so busy,” another neighbor quips as he sees Hathaway walking with a Standard-Times reporter and photographer, and fellow MLT member Don Cuddy.

“We love Brad and we are so proud of him,” said neighbor Patricia Charyk. “We watch over him.”

As Hathaway takes a break from his walk at the town beach, Chris Charyk, asks him if he wouldn’t mind walking the entrance to the beach again so he can be filmed using a drone camera. The footage is planned for the MLT website to promote the fundraiser.

“It might add 100 more yards to your walk,” Charyk says good-naturedly.

Sporting his Mattapoisett Land Trust T-shirt, it’s evident that Hathaway holds the MLT close to his heart. He actually co-founded the MLT in 1974 along with David and Norma Hewitt. MLT holds properties totaling more than 650 acres purchased with private contributions, $1 million from the state and $250,000 from the Mattapoisett Community Preservation fund, according to the MLT website.

“I’m very aware of how rural Mattapoisett is becoming developed, and that bothers me,” Hathaway said.

Before he leaves the town beach to continue his walk, Hathaway poignantly remembers the days his wife used to walk with him and believes she would be his number one supporter getting him to the 24K miles goal.

“I think she is pushing me,” he says, then rephrases. “I know she is pushing me.”