Mikka on Nostr: I should introduce you to Lenny the Lion. He's coming with me on this year's hike, as ...

I should introduce you to Lenny the Lion. He's coming with me on this year's hike, as a plushie has since 2018. Each plushie will, after completing the hike, go to their forever home at a local children's hospital. While they hike with me, they're sending videos, stories, and pictures from the hike to the kids at the hospital.

Data show, that the best predictor of positive outcomes in long-term child therapy (same for adults, but less pronounced) is to present outlooks and plans for the future. Lenny does this, by telling tall and small tales from his hike, a story or pictures each day, something the kids look forward to.

This is, however, the first year that I will add some of those pictures here (and on Instagram) as well. I think Lenny wants for more people to see his travels and, maybe, get inspired to have a walking vacation.

Lenny is also a master of disguise and might look mighty different once he gets to Portugal. The "adult" version of this is, that (of course) I can't send a plushie that has been through 3000 kilometers of hostel sleeping and road and forest walking to a cohort of severely immunosuppressed children in a cancer ward. So Lenny has an identical twin at home, who will do the traveling to the hospital. And should I find more than one Lenny along the way, more hospitals will get one.