PHILADELPHIA _ Feeling the Bern, Ed Higgins incinerated his old life.
In the last five months, Higgins, 39, shuttered his Arizona advertising company, broke up with his longtime girlfriend, and dedicated himself to planning a march from Washington to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention.
"I'm at the end of my rope, but somehow it feels like exactly where I should be," said Higgins, who is bouncing among friends' houses when not living out of his car.
Higgins wars undeterred by Bernie Sanders' endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.
"I think we'll get more people now. People are fed up," Higgins said. "We're marching for democracy; we're not marching for Bernie. Bernie may have sparked the revolution, but it's going to continue."
Higgins is one of a number of Sanders supporters, officially unaffiliated with the campaign, who have found themselves shifting from "normal person" to grass-roots organizer, planning travel and logistics for thousands of Sanders-inspired protesters headed to Philadelphia for the convention July 25-28.
The city has issued 10 group protest permits for the convention, including one for Higgins, with 17 more pending. City officials have said they intend to be forgiving when it comes to unpermitted events.
FDR Park, near the Wells Fargo Center, is the expected hub for demonstrations, but many groups plan to protest in the Center City neighborhood, where they believe they will be more visible.
Higgins' 10-day march will start at the U.S. Capitol and end at FDR Park on July 24, the Sunday before the convention.
Higgins has political and personal reasons for supporting Sanders. His father served in Vietnam and developed a drinking problem afterward. Higgins spent time in foster care and credits social programs with saving his life, while blaming the war as destroying his father's.
"All these social programs, (Sanders') views on the Iraq War, and his views on Medicare, those things have all affected my life, so when I saw him, I was just, like, this guy is speaking to me," Higgins said.
