A 12-year-old boy who founded a charity at age 6 is walking across the country to raise money for homeless children, writes The New York Times.

Zachary L. Bonner has currently reached Arizona in his quest to walk from Tampa, Fla., to Santa Monica, Calif., over a nine-month period. It is his third fund-raising trek on behalf of the Little Red Wagon Foundation, which he founded to provide water to victims of Hurricane Charley after it hit Florida in 2004. Donors for the current walk include the singer Elton John, who has pledged $50,000 if the youngster makes it to Los Angeles.

Zachary’s story is soon to be the subject of a motion picture, directed by David Anspaugh, who also directed the 1986 basketball drama Hoosiers, and will be produced by the Philanthropy Project.

“He’s just like every other kid, except he likes to do community-service work for some odd reason,” said his mother, Laurie Bonner. “He likes doing it. It’s weird.”

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