Published: March 26, 2008 11:32 am            

California man on eight-year journey to raise money for children’s causes

WEATHERFORD — A cowboy on horseback riding down the street isn’t all that unusual in Weatherford, Texas. When he’s from Chico, Calif., and he’s 7,000 miles into an eight-year journey, that’s a different story.

Meet Ezra Cooley, a 28-year-old former entrepreneur who two years ago sold his business, packed up and hit the trail to raise money for children’s causes.

“It was just what I was led to do,” Cooley said Tuesday during his trek through Weatherford. “I knew I wanted to help children. I visited with my dad about it, and the rest of my family, and they supported it, so here I am.”

Here indeed. Ezra started his journey in April 2006, negotiating the snowfall of the Sierra Mountains near his home in California to head east ... to New York City. He rode his 7-year-old Arabian, Red, into New York last May, roped the Merrill Lynch bull on Wall Street, then rode down to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan,

“I stayed with the New York City police department’s mounted squad,” Cooley said. “They were very nice and very helpful.”

He’s traveled more than 7,000 miles in the past two years, and his current trek brought him from Missouri through Oklahoma and into Texas at Wichita Falls. He’s been staying with a friend, Jonathan Bartox, at his place between Weatherford and Mineral Wells during Easter.

Now he’s headed to Fort Worth and Dallas, where there will be press conferences, meetings with Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) officials and appearances to make. It’s all in the name of calling attention to the need for donations to CMN.

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