Marist Professor and Navy Veteran Tommy Zurhellen is trying to understand the reality of so many who worked in the military. Since April, he has walked 2,800 miles cross country to raise awareness about veteran homelessness and suicide.

Zurhellen's finished his journey Friday on the Marist College Campus, where he was met by thousands of supporters. 

Every day Zurhellen walked 22 miles — the average number of veterans who take their lives every day. Over the last four months, he has raised nearly $50,000 for local veteran organizations. But Zurhellen says walking was the easy part.

"The hard part was the mental part. Getting up and doing it everyday alone," Zurhellen said.

Every day he thought about giving up, but there was one thing that kept him going.

"All you have to do is remember the pain of our veterans experiencing mental health issues or homelessness is so much worse than a guy walking across the country with sore feet," Zurhellen said.

Zurhellen says the walk was about much more than raising money and awareness. He says he also hopes to inspire his many students at Marist to not just want to change the world but actually go out and do it. 

"Our students are the people who want to change the world and we always tell our students in the classroom, go out there and change the world, but we never seem to try and do it ourselves. This is the kind of thing we should be doing," Zurhellen said.