When visiting Washington DC you will not lack for ideas of places to go and things to see. But the key to a visit to the district is finding the smaller things along the way from location to location to squeeze in even more interesting history in this unique and bustling city.
When I visited I began to notice that when walking from museum to museum statues and monuments were abundant. There was not a single walk down the street that wasn’t filled with life and interest. Turn one corner and you will find a historic building, turn the next and a statue greets you from one of the countries influential founders.
But something we so often do when exploring the city and looking upward and onward at all the sites is simply looking down. It is when you look down that you will find one of Washington’s hidden gems in plain sight, The Extra Mile.
The Extra Mile - Points of Light Volunteer Pathway is a national monument all its own, but unlike those standing at eye level the points of interest for this unique feature line a one mile walking path spanning Pennsylvania Avenue, 15th Street, G Street and 11th Street.
It is along this path you will find 34 bronze medallions honoring who “through their caring and personal sacrifice, reached out to others, building their dreams into movements that helped people across America and throughout the world.” Founded in 1992 and dedicated officially in 2005, this monument creates a lasting reminder of some of America’s most noted and selfless individuals.
Each bronze medallion includes a likeness of the honoree, a description of their contribution and achievement and a quote. From founder, civil rights leaders, environmentalists, suffragist, conservationist and advocates the list is a whose who of the world we live in today.
Honorees include:
- Jane Addams - Founder Hull House
- Edgar Allen - Founder Easter Seals
- Ethel Percy Andrus - Founder AARP
- Susan B. Anthony - Suffragist
- Roger Nash Baldwin - Founder American Civil Liberties Union
- Ruth Standish Baldwin/Dr. George Haynes - Founders Urban League
- Ida Wells-Barnett - Leader of the Anti-Lynching Movement
- Clara Barton - Founder Red Cross
- Clifford Beers - Founder Modern Healthcare Movement
- Ballington & Maud Booth - Founders Volunteers of America
- William D. Boyce - Founder Boy Scouts of America
- Wallace Campbell - Founder CARE
- Rachel Carson - Environmentalist
- Cesar Chavez - Co-Founder United Farm Workers of America
- Dorthea Dix - Advocate of the Reform of Institutions for the Mentally Ill
- Frederick Douglass - Abolitionist
- Millard & Linda Fuller - Founder & Co-Founder Habitat for Humanity
- Hector Garcia - Founder American GI Forum
- Samuel Gompers - Founder American Federation of Labor
- Charlotte & Luther Gulick - Founder Camp Fire
- William Edwin Hall - President Boys & Girls Club of America
- Paul Harris - Founder Rotary International
- Dorothy Height - Civil Rights Leader
- Edgar J. Helms - Founder Goodwill Industries
- Melvin Jones - Founder International Association of Lions Clubs
- Helen Keller - Founder American Foundation for the Blind
- Martin Luther King, Jr. - Civil Rights Leader
- Juliette Gorton Low - Founder Girls Scouts of the USA
- John Muir - Conservationist
- Mary White Ovington & WEB Du Bois- Founder NAACP
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver - Founder Special Olympics
- Robert Smith & William Wilson - Co-Founders Alcoholics Anonymous
- Harriet Tubman - Leader of Underground Railroad Effort to Free Slaves
- Booker T. Washington - Civil Rights Leader
This is original content from NewsBreak’s Creator Program. Join today to publish and share your own content.