Glenn Baker made a promise to a man in a wheelchair, and he has spent the better part of two years figuring out how to keep it.
The man was Joshua L. Holm, an Iraq War veteran who came home paralyzed and never stopped working. The promise was that Joshua would stand up again. On September 17, Baker turned that promise into an organization. Walk For A Hero is a new nonprofit built around one idea: ordinary Americans walking real miles to put paralyzed veterans back on their feet, one exoskeleton at a time.
“As a soldier, we made an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Baker says. “As a Warfighter, we also made an oath to our battle buddies to never leave anybody behind. We have left Warriors behind, and this mission is to fix that and get those Warriors back on their feet.”
Here is who Glenn Baker is, how Walk For A Hero works, what the money buys, and how to decide whether it deserves yours.
Who Is Glenn Baker?
Baker served in the U.S. Army during Operation Desert Storm and was honorably discharged. Like a lot of veterans of his generation, he came home and went to work. He joined his father’s business and helped grow it into a multimillion-dollar company. In 2008, in the middle of the real estate collapse, he started his own life insurance agency. Before that, after Hurricane Wilma tore through South Florida in 2005, he organized a sales team to help with the recovery, according to his biography.
Music had always been there. In 2019 he went back to Nashville, started writing again, and began working with other songwriters and players in town. A fundraiser for wounded veterans put him back on a stage in front of the exact audience he wanted to serve. What came out of that period was a song called “Finish This Fight.”
The song became a documentary. Finish This Fight: The Diary of a Pissed Off American Soldier premiered on November 22, 2024. It follows Baker across the country talking to veterans and public figures about what service costs and what the country owes in return. The film’s guests include retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West, commentator Chad Prather and former Navy SEAL Craig “Sawman” Sawyer. When the film was announced, Baker pledged half of its profits to wounded veterans, and he named Joshua Holm as the first veteran he intended to help get an exoskeleton.
That pledge is the seed of everything that followed.
The Promise: Joshua L. Holm
Joshua L. Holm deployed to Iraq in 2003 and served through 2004. During that deployment he sustained combat-related injuries that left him paralyzed and living with traumatic brain injury.
What he did next is the reason Baker could not walk away. Holm became an author, an ordained minister and a professional speaker. He founded his own nonprofit, Steel Hope Foundation, built around a motto he spells out letter by letter: “BE STEEL: Believe, Expand, Stand, Transform, Encourage, Enlighten, and Love.” Its humanitarian work has reached as far as Nigeria. He is a member of Paralyzed Veterans of America, and today he gets around off-road in a TrackChair.
What he did not have was an exoskeleton. The technology existed. The funding did not. According to the foundation, the answer he kept hearing was some version of “someday, maybe.”
Baker’s answer was not someday. It was now. Holm is Walk For A Hero’s first named hero, and his campaign is the one the entire organization is built around.
“We have left Warriors behind, and this mission is to fix that and get those Warriors back on their feet.”
Glenn Baker, founder, Walk For A Hero Foundation
What Walk For A Hero Does
The foundation’s mission statement is short and specific: “Walk for a Hero exists to help qualified veterans access life-changing mobility, technology, and opportunities that can restore independence, dignity, and possibility after catastrophic injury.”
In practice, that means funding personal exoskeletons for U.S. military veterans with lower-limb paralysis who medically qualify for the technology. Candidates are reviewed by the foundation’s board with clinical input, and every funded veteran is named publicly with his or her own campaign page. There are no anonymous beneficiaries and no general pool you have to trust blindly.
The foundation’s number is $150,000 per veteran, and it is careful about what that covers. The price includes four things and only four things:
- The exoskeleton itself. An FDA-cleared Wandercraft unit, the largest line in the package.
- Five years of maintenance. So a repair bill never lands on a veteran’s kitchen table.
- Travel. For fitting, training and delivery, wherever the veteran lives.
- Physical therapy. The rehab that turns a machine into an actual walk.
“We don’t call it done when the box arrives,” the foundation says on its site. “Victory is a veteran standing on their own two feet for years, not a photo op on delivery day.”
How the Walk Works
Most veterans charities ask you to write a check and trust them. Walk For A Hero asks you to lace up your shoes and prove it.
The campaign runs on three roles.
Heroes are the veterans. Each gets a public page and a live campaign portal, so progress is visible instead of buried in a quarterly newsletter.
Walkers pick a hero and commit to one fixed mission: 15 miles in 30 days. The miles do not have to come in one day. Fifteen one-mile walks count exactly the same as one 15-mile walk. Every mile is recorded from the walker’s phone by GPS during the walk itself. The board decided that miles cannot be typed in by hand, so every dollar pledged is tied to a route that was actually walked.
Backers stand behind a walker. Each walker needs at least 10, and there is no ceiling. Backers pledge anywhere from $1 to $100 per mile, watch their pending, tax-deductible gift grow on a live map as the walker moves, and are charged when the walk is finished. Anyone who does not want to back a walker can give directly.
Here is the foundation’s own example of the math:
- 1 walker Commits to 15 miles for a named hero.
- 10 backers Each pledges $5 per mile. That is the minimum, not the target.
- $750 raised 10 backers times $5 times 15 miles, from one walk.
- × 1,000 walkers The foundation’s target for each hero’s campaign. Scale one walk up that far and a fully funded veteran is within reach.
Put a thousand walkers behind one veteran and, as the foundation puts it, a $150,000 exoskeleton “stops being a fantasy and starts being a Tuesday.”
The Technology: What an Exoskeleton Actually Does
The foundation funds Wandercraft exoskeletons, and the timing could not be better. On August 11, 2026, the FDA cleared Wandercraft’s Eve, the first self-balancing exoskeleton cleared for personal use. Eve went on sale commercially on September 17, the same day Walk For A Hero launched.
Most earlier exoskeletons needed crutches for balance. Eve balances itself. The user controls it with a remote, which leaves the hands free to open a door, reach a shelf or shake someone’s hand at eye level. It is cleared for wheelchair users with spinal cord injuries at any level, for use on level indoor floors and nearby outdoor areas like patios, with a trained companion present. Wandercraft is clear that it complements a wheelchair rather than replacing one. In testing, users reported improvements in endurance, spasticity, sleep quality and psychological well-being.
“FDA clearance of Eve marks one of the most important moments in Wandercraft’s history,” said CEO Matthieu Masselin. Wandercraft also sells through USVetServ, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business that is an authorized distributor to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Doesn’t the VA already cover this?
Sometimes. The VA has had a national policy for evaluating and providing personal exoskeletons since December 2015, and it runs 25 spinal cord injury centers across the country. But access depends on clinical eligibility, evaluation and training capacity, and the specific devices covered. Paralyzed Veterans of America has cautioned that not every paralyzed veteran will meet the criteria. Walk For A Hero’s argument is that for veterans who do qualify, money should never be the reason they are still waiting. The foundation says more than 20,000 people have medically qualified for exoskeleton technology in the last decade.
The People Behind Walk For A Hero
A new charity is only as credible as the people running it, and Baker has recruited a board with real operating experience.
Jim Wimpress, Chairman, served as President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters International from 2018 to 2023, where the organization expanded mentoring across 13 countries. He was a founding partner of RankOne Sport & Health and a vice president of stores at GameStop.
Debbie Faris, Executive Director, is a former Fortune 500 executive, author and international creative producer who has built brands across Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America. She collaborated with McCann Worldgroup Chairman Emeritus John J. Dooner on Coca-Cola’s documentary The Untold Story.
Tim Dillard, Board Member, founded the 1st in Mall TV Network, which ran content across eight channels in more than 200 malls. He has won three Telly Awards and helped build the first telemedicine project in Texas.
Barry Jackson, the foundation’s first advisor, retired from the U.S. Army as a master sergeant after 30 years of service. His connection is personal. He went through a season of his life paralyzed and in a wheelchair, and he knows the fear and the fight of recovery from the inside.
Before You Give: How to Vet Any New Veterans Charity
Walk For A Hero is days old, and a new nonprofit deserves the same scrutiny as any other. Here is what to check, for this organization or any other:
- Tax status. The foundation describes itself as a registered 501(c)(3) and links to verification from its site. You can confirm any charity’s status yourself with the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search.
- Where the money goes. The foundation says every dollar designated to a hero’s campaign funds that hero’s exoskeleton, maintenance, travel and therapy, and it publishes a transparency page.
- Named beneficiaries. Every hero is a real, named veteran with a public page. Be wary of any charity that cannot tell you who it helps.
- Proof of results. The honest measure for this foundation, like any other, will be delivered exoskeletons and veterans on their feet. Hold it to that.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Walk For A Hero?
Walk For A Hero Foundation is a nonprofit founded by Army Desert Storm veteran Glenn Baker that funds personal exoskeletons for paralyzed U.S. veterans through a GPS-tracked, peer-to-peer walking campaign. It launched September 17, 2026, at walkforahero.com.
Who is Glenn Baker?
Glenn Baker is a U.S. Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm, a country recording artist and the filmmaker behind the documentary Finish This Fight: The Diary of a Pissed Off American Soldier. He founded Walk For A Hero to keep a promise to paralyzed Iraq War veteran Joshua L. Holm.
How much does it cost to fund one veteran?
$150,000. That covers a Wandercraft exoskeleton, five years of maintenance, travel for fitting and training, and physical therapy.
How do I become a walker?
Sign up at walkforahero.com, choose a hero, recruit at least 10 backers and complete 15 GPS-tracked miles within 30 days. You can split the miles into as many walks as you like.
Are donations tax-deductible?
The foundation says it is a registered 501(c)(3) and that gifts are tax-deductible. Keep your receipt, and check whether your employer matches charitable donations.
Who qualifies as a hero?
U.S. military veterans with lower-limb paralysis who medically qualify for exoskeleton technology. The board reviews candidates with clinical input, and every funded veteran is named publicly.
Take Action
There are three ways in. Become a walker and turn 15 miles into a veteran’s first steps. Back Joshua Holm’s campaign or a walker you know. Or, if you run a company, a foundation or a platform with reach, look at the foundation’s sponsorship options. A single corporate partner can fund an entire hero.
And share this story. The whole model depends on one person telling ten more.
The Bottom Line
Glenn Baker is not asking America to feel bad about paralyzed veterans. He is asking America to walk. Fifteen miles, ten friends, one named veteran, and a device that the FDA now says can go home with him.
The foundation is brand new, and its real test is still ahead: the day Joshua Holm stands up. If Walk For A Hero gets him there, it will have done what donors want from every charity. It will have shown exactly where the money went, one step at a time.
Disclosure: Stucci Marketing Group, the agency led by Stucci Media founder Rocci Stucci, built walkforahero.com and provides marketing services to the Walk For A Hero Foundation. Stucci Media’s editorial standards apply to this article, and every figure in it comes from the sources linked above.
