An op ed piece in the New York Times raised an interesting question about the connection between walking and raising money for charitable causes. Why not take the same effort that is exerted at these events, and apply it to something really useful, doing even more good in the process? Regarding the Boston Walk for Hunger,Ted Gup writes,
What I saw that morning in Boston was a resource diverted from its true purpose. Imagine those 210,000 man-hours (42,000 times a five-hour walk) put into direct service to benefit the poor. Think of the houses that might be built, roofs repaired, gardens planted and harvested, public spaces improved, and meals delivered to shut-ins. (And add in the efforts of the 2,000 volunteers that day and the contributions of 50,000 donors.) Now multiply that by the millions of man-hours that are represented by such events in cities across the nation, from Los Angeles to Louisville, Ky., from Austin, Tex., to Grand Rapids, Mich.
In reading further, though, it becomes clear that mass walking serves a purpose to support charitable causes that is not wasted effort; rather it is collective motive force applied to something that sounds a lot like PR. Gup writes:
The easy explanation, of course, is that there would be no giving
