Toronto teen's 100km Thanksgiving walk raises funds for homeless youth

This was no ordinary morning stroll for 14-year-old Evangeline Link. It was the final leg of a 100-kilometer hike that started on Friday and ended with this reception from family and friends. Despite what she had been through the past four days she was pretty upbeat when it was over. This is one of the better walks I've had in my years. In fact this was the fifth straight year Link had made this trek. I can't believe you made it this far. It all started when she was just 10 years old. She came up with the idea of raising money for charity by walking from her grandparents' house in West Hamilton back home to Toronto. I'm like, ah, it's a two-hour drive. How hard can it be? When she brought the idea to her parents, they weren't exactly on board at first. And at first, we were caught off guard by it, being like, oh, that's a long walk. But Evangeline was persistent. She built a case for it. She practiced for it. She trained for it. At some point, you realize that she's really committed to it. Part of her proposal was to donate funds to Covenant House which provides support to youth who are homeless. I decided I wanted to walk and I wanted to do it for Covenant House because I love Covenant House. It's a great community and I wanted to give other kids the opportunities that I had while I grew up. Her goal the first year was to raise $1,000 for Covenant House. She ended up raising $6,000. Now her five-year combined total is more than 10 times that. $66,000, over $66,000. She's walked 500 kilometers and raised all that money. It's pretty unbelievable. I've often been quoted as saying, like, Evangeline is a person that will change the world someday. Evangeline has decided that this will be her last 100-kilometer hike. She says she needs to focus on school. I'm going into grade 11, so there's a lot of stuff happening in school, and it's going to get very busy. This weekend alone, I had tons of homework and tests to study for. But that doesn't mean she's finished giving back to her community. She's already got some plans. So we've said let's just get through this weekend first before we start moving ahead on anything else. She's already looking towards her next goal. She is, yeah. And she says there's plenty of work still to be done for Covenant House as well. Definitely won't be the last you guys see of me with Covenant House. Greg Ross, CBC News, Toronto.