A northwest Iowa woman is preparing for another 300-mile walk across the state to raise money for cancer research. Jody Moats lives in Akron and plans to hike from the banks of the Missouri River to the Mississippi. Moats lost her father to pancreatic cancer in 2005 and she walked across Iowa in her first fundraising effort during the summer of 2006.
Moats says, "We had so many people ask me to do it again and I felt like I needed to do it again and we raised close to eight-thousand dollars last year and I just think we could raise a little more so I decided to make the trip at least one more year." She says she’ll devote the first few weeks of next month to her second annual "Hike Iowa For Hope."
Moats says, "We’ll start in Sioux City on September first and we’ll make it to Dubuque, once again, on September 16th." Stops along the way will include: Sac City, Fort Dodge, Webster City, Iowa Falls, Waterloo and Manchester. Moats is hoping people across Iowa will make donations to the cause as she follows Highway 20 from west to east.
She says half of the money raised will go to Pan-Can, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, with the other half going to the June E. Nylen Cancer Center in Sioux City. Moats’ father was Darwin Hartnett of Webster City. For more information, visit " www.hikeiowaforhope.com ".