Around Colleton River, Don Thompson is better known as “Poppy.”

He is a neighbor, a grandfather, and the kind of person who can turn an ordinary walk into something people want to follow. But just a few years ago, the Camino de Santiago was not even on his radar.

Poppy first learned about the Camino de Santiago during a passing conversation at The Sandbar in Colleton River. The idea stuck with him: a centuries-old pilgrimage across Spain, traveled one day and one step at a time.

Eventually, that passing conversation turned into a real goal. And once Poppy began preparing for Spain, another idea took shape closer to home: what if his training miles could support the Colleton River Charitable Fund and bring the community along for the journey?

That idea became the “Colleton Camino,” a 500-mile walking challenge through Colleton River to benefit the Colleton River Charitable Fund.

For just under six weeks, Poppy walked mile after mile through the neighborhood, sharing the journey through short videos filled with humor, honesty, sore feet, changing weather, and the occasional ridiculous moment. Behind the scenes, Poppy’s son, Chase, shaped the footage into the short video updates that gave the project its voice and helped neighbors follow along day by day.

Before long, people began to notice.

Residents tied orange ribbons to their mailboxes to cheer him on. Neighbors waved from golf carts, stopped to talk, donated, and sometimes joined him for portions of the walk. What could have been a solitary training routine became a shared story — one that gave the community a reason to rally around Poppy and around the work of CRCF.

By the end of the Colleton Camino, the effort had helped raise more than $130,000 for the Colleton River Charitable Fund.

That kind of response says something about Colleton River, but it also says something about the power of a good story. Poppy was not just asking people to support a cause. He was inviting them along for the journey. Through video updates, daily miles, jokes, setbacks, and genuine moments of reflection, neighbors got to see the effort behind the goal.

And then Poppy took that goal overseas.

After completing the Colleton Camino, he set out for Spain to walk the real Camino de Santiago, the route that had inspired the whole journey. This time, instead of passing familiar homes and mailboxes, he was crossing mountain passes, quiet villages, crowded trails, rainy forests, and long stretches of open road.

But the heart of the story stayed the same.

Poppy continued filming his own journey as he walked, sending home hours of footage that became episodes full of funny moments, difficult days, beautiful views, and real emotion. The same personality that connected with neighbors in Colleton River began connecting with people far beyond South Carolina.

His YouTube channel, Poppy’s Path, has now grown to more than 3,500 subscribers. The first episode of his Camino de Santiago series has passed 50,000 views, and the channel has drawn more than 200,000 views over roughly the same six-week span as the Colleton Camino.

It is a remarkable parallel: in six weeks of training at home, Poppy helped spark more than $130,000 in support for CRCF. In six weeks on the Camino, his story reached hundreds of thousands of viewers online.

At its core, Poppy’s Path is about adventure, perseverance, humor, and the reminder that it is never too late to take on something meaningful.