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Show PAGE 8 THE ZEFHYRJUNE 1994 know where their kids are, what they are doing, and are proud of them. The kids will come home exhausted feeling good and tired and moral, and go to bed early. Law and order, rock music, a service agency, the needs of the needy, and the common values of the community will have been served by the hiking hordes. This event is an example of the Mthon phenomena" - a walkathon. Thons come in wide variety - running thons, walk backwards thons, and just about any kind of thon the human mind is capable of considering. Who would have thought such a thing would come to pass? From the National Desk of the Zephyr push-a-bed-ath- on, leap-frog-a-th- I'd give anything to have been there the evening our unsung hero proposed this committee. idea to the a thousand kids "Now let me get this straight, Jack, you think we can make a bundle for the cause?" and in this town about twenty miles some Saturday said he'd chair it and "Right." After the committee laughed themselves silly. Jack first walkathon was bom. organize it - just give him a chance. And the Today? Any Saturday. Thousands of people of all ages running ten kilometers in their underwear in the rain. Doing miles and miles on bikes, skateboards, and wheelchairs. Rowing boats, pushing wheelbarrows and beds. pick up trash on the highway thons, Runathons, pushathons, love runs, -eatathons, prayathons, hopathons, crawlathons, rockathons and the for thousands dollars of of the common good. the triathalonathon. Raising hundreds fund-raisi- ng dead-mar- read-a-thon- ch s, Thon-of-Tho- ns Getting little for their efforts but a T shirt or a shirt patch. You won't see these events covered in the paper. It's not because they aren't important. It's because it's not news. We take it for granted it's what we should be doing. We don't have a lot of statistics about who raised the most for what. It's not a contest. And our hero? We'll never know. But he illustrates the truth of the adage that says there's no limit to the amount of good a person can do if he doesn't care who gets the credit. By Robert Fulghum Somewhere in this fair land there is an unsung hero. He or she rightfully belongs in the pantheon of pioneers. The apotheosis of this mobilizer of the masses is long overdue. A marble statue of this person should stand in the nation's Capitol building, and a bronze bust should be placed in every civic center as tribute to a genius of finance and social progress. My facts are lean at best. I don't know the who, the how, the where or the when of this story. All I know is the results. And my best guess is that, like all great concepts, this one had a beginning in the mind of one person. Somebody was thinking. Thinking hard. Thinking deep. Thinking wide. watched a thon this winter in Florida. I forget now what it was for. An endless stream of walkers - old, young, white, black, crippled, healthy - trudging along in a light rain. Wrapped up in raincoats and parkas. Armed with water bottles, peanut butter sandwiches, and dry socks. Armed, too, with some unspoken but magnificent sense of the human dream and a belief that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary accomplishments by doing ordinary things together. I watched as the tail end of the line went by, the stragglers no less important than those who led the march. Going somewhere further on beyond the ordinariness of a Saturday, headed toward something larger and finer. I I do know that from a modest beginning a powerful force has coma, and you will know exactly what I mean when I describe one form that original idea has taken. It's a Saturday morning. Could be anywhere in America. At an intersection stands a policeman halting traffic. Crossing in front of you, and extending as far as you can see to the right and left, school children of many ages are strung out in a ragtag fashion, walking along in the same direction in a purposeful way. Going somewhere. Hundreds of them. They carry knapsacks, balloons, portable radios, and signs that say "Fight" something and "Wipe Out" something, but you can't make out just what. Sponsored radio station, a local Bank and the Girl Scouts, by the Elks Club, a the to wear and the signs they wave. according they The children are marching twenty miles to raise money to combat a disease or save whales or feed the hungry somewhere. People sponsor each child at so much a mile - a nickel up to a dollar - none of which goes into the kid's pockets. It's all for the cause. The kids are getting exercise; having fun, and doing good. The parents are free of them for awhile at a low g rate. The parents rock-a-bil- ly T-shi-rts baby-sittin- from Famous Farmers in History The saucer come In cfose...ft was green and Indigo and ORGANIC AGRICULTURE spinning Ilka a top. And Edna yelled, "Get on FOR A BETTER WORLD the devil." I tell you outta here, you sons of what, I havent been the sams since. TOMORROW. CLYDE LEDBETTER: First farmer in Hopkins Covnfy, Indiana to have a close encounter with an alien. |