TOWER- Jason Lennox has a personal interest in mental health and addiction. He personally struggled with both in his younger years, and in 2010 entered treatment.
“Treatment saved me,” he said, while on a quick stop in Tower on July 27, part of his almost 2,000-mile journey to walk the borders of Minnesota to raise awareness for youth mental health and to raise money for a nonprofit foundation he started a couple of years ago called Recovery Road. Right now, the foundation is providing resources and community grants, he said, but their goal is to start providing resources and programming on a larger scale.
The walk is to raise awareness of youth mental health issues, particularly in rural parts of the state, as well as raise funds for his foundation.
This year’s walk is in honor of an 11-year-old girl, Kenzie Mae Leonardo, from his hometown of New Richland, Minn., who died by suicide last fall. While he didn’t know Kenzie Mae, he had gone to school with her mother and aunts, and he went back home to attend her funeral last November. He has since become close with her family, who are now helping him with his journey.
“Mental health challenges can be invisible,” he said, noting that Kenzie Mae was photographed dancing and smiling only hours before she took her own life. “You never know what people are going through. Every kid in this state should be able to get care. And right now, too many can’t.”
Suicide is the second-highest cause of death for youth ages 10-14, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). And it is the third-leading cause among young people 15-24.
Lennox, supported by a crew of friends and others with personal experience with addiction, is walking about 20 miles a day. Supporters are welcome to join him on the walk (you can track his location and progress on his personal Facebook page). His support crew, which includes an RV, meets up with him every couple of hours on the road, to replenish his water and snacks. The RV gets parked in a central location for a few days, and he gets shuttled back and forth from the specific days’ starting and end points. The support person with him on Monday was an older fellow named Steve, who met Lennox when they both were in treatment, and afterwards he and his wife offered Lennox a place to stay during his recovery, becoming a “second set of parents.” Lennox lost his own father, who died at the age of 39 from the effects of alcoholism. He is now the same age his father was when he passed away, but thanks to help from friends like these, he is strong, healthy, and alcohol and drug-free. He is also now very close with his mothers, three siblings, and large extended family.
Lennox had spent Monday night in Ely, making some new friends along the way. Yesterday, he reached a major milestone, his first 500 miles on foot. Today he was planning to get partway to Cook, then on to Orr and International Falls, where a mental health awareness event was set for the upcoming weekend.
In Tower, he was treated to a picnic lunch by the staff at Zup’s Grocery, plus some Zup’s swag. While walking into the store, he met Cheryl Lamppa, who invited him over to sauna at Lamppa Mfg. later in the day.
The trip has been full of all kinds of amazing connections, he said. Though there have been a few hurdles, mostly from bad maps and Mother Nature. He is documenting his progress on his Facebook page (Jason Lennox). While he mapped the distance to be walked at 1,776 miles, the actual mileage count will likely be closer to 2,000, he said, due to some more circuitous routes needed in the wilder portions of the state. He also needed to do some rerouting due to the forest fires which closed most of the Echo Trail, which he planned to walk on his travels from Ely to International Falls. The detour is leading him through Tower and Cook instead.
Getting across the northern border of the state was a challenge, he wrote on his Facebook page.
“This was one of the ten most trying days,” he said. “130 miles of gravel roads, steamy/sticky heat, the worst bugs I’ve ever experienced, plus summer storms.” Then came the downed trees, wildfires, and smoky air.
“Words can’t describe what it feels like to be on pavement again. To see cars. To see life. To let the body and brain settle a bit,” he said. “Walking out of this forest a different person, that’s for sure.”
But even getting close to Ely, he had challenges.
“A few days ago, I got lost on an old forest road that was just a tangle of downed trees,” he said. It wasn’t drivable so my support person couldn’t get to me easily. I ended up having to swim through a swamp. No more forest routes for me!” He managed to get out without any major injuries, but he had tweaked his good knee and was pretty scratched up. His other knee is the survivor of a half a dozen knee surgeries, the result of a teenage sports injury.
Yesterday, between Ely and Tower, he met someone picking wild blueberries on an empty stretch of gravel road.
“I got scared when someone just popped up in the middle of nowhere,” he said, “but then he shared his berries with me.” The blueberry picker made him promise not to share the spot with anyone else.
After cruising through Tower, Lennox had a similar reception in Cook, treated to a free RV propane fill at North Country Rentals and a delious lunch at Rose Cottage Baking Co., and hearing more personal stories along the way.
Lennox started his journey in Stillwater on June 29, and plans to end it there on Oct.10, as part of a World Mental Health Day event.

Recovery Road
Recovery Road strives to:
• Center honest conversation and connection as prevention
• Use the 250th anniversary of the United States and 1776 miles as a powerful “then vs. now” metaphor
• Establish The Recovery Road as a visible, human presence through a speaking-based journey in our backyard
• Build trusted partnerships across mental health, substance use, health care, and advocacy
• Fundraising supports the work, but conversation is the movement.
• Find out more and donate at https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/the-recovery-road--2026