Meet Karlton

Karlton Thornton is Great Rivers Greenway’s newest board member representing St. Louis County. He has dedicated thousands of hours to St. Louis area organizations and schools serving on the board of Hazelwood School District, The United Way, Annie Malone Children’s Home as a Child Advocate, Job Corps St. Louis Community Response Committee member, former Board member and Administrator advisor of Day Spring School of Arts and Education, The Black Rep and more. He is also a four-time cancer survivor. When you meet him, it’s hard to believe that he once weighed 300 pounds after a difficult recovery from cancer left him bedridden. He has survived cancer four times; Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma twice, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Melanoma. He shares why he said yes to serving on Great Rivers Greenway’s Board:

I remember feeling so sick I could not even walk down the hallway of my house.  I decided to turn back to my childhood where I found energy and connection to nature through the joy of scouting, swimming and visits to my family’s farm. I wanted to tap into prayer and nature’s proven healing properties and get better so I could be there for my wife and daughters.  Lucky for me, I lived close to the Sunset Greenway in Florissant. My recovery mirrored the progress of the first phase of the greenway as it was built from Sunset Park to St. Ferdinand Park. As construction progressed, I slowly started to walk from my house to the greenway. I would walk, and follow the path as it grew: one step at a time. I am so happy to be able to walk here with my family in good health…and to serve the agency that is connecting people to nature and the outdoors.

Home Greenway: Sunset!