 SUNSHINE
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Walk for Sunshine Motivated by his love for his disabled brother and by a dream, Jeff Alt hiked the 2,160 mile journey of endurance known as The Appalachian Trail to raise funds for The Sunshine Home. In his book, A Walk for Sunshine, Alt tells the story of his five month trek and explains the reasons behind it. Jeff's brother, Aaron, has cerebral palsy and is totally dependent on others for his most basic needs. Aaron has lived at the Sunshine Home in Maumee, Ohio, since he was a child, and his family is most grateful for the services they provide to him. Coming from a background in marketing and sales, Jeff had just completed a masters program in speech pathology. He had hiked sections of the Appalachian Trail since he was a teenager, and had dreamed of hiking the Trail in its entirety. Pulling together all of his interests and abilities, he decided to hike the Trail as a fundraiser to benefit the Sunshine Home. The Sunshine Home serves 850 mentally retarded and developmentally disabled residents and clients. Residents like Aaron rely on the Sunshine Home for assistance with daily needs like bathing, eating, or going to the bathroom. Jeff Alt writes that Aaron “does not communicate verbally or with any adaptive devices, which leaves his thoughts, dreams, and aspirations a mystery. I assumed walking the AT would be a big challenge, but it would still be much easier than having to use a wheelchair.” Sunshine's administrators loved the idea of the fundraising hike, and together, they set a goal of raising $10,000 to buy communication devices, lifts, and walkers for the residents¹ use. With his marketing background, Jeff set up speaking engagements, sent out press releases, and raised funds for the next seven months. He carried his bright red backpack, loaded with fifty pounds of provisions, to every speaking engagement. He explained his mission and showed a video on the Sunshine Home and slides of the Appalachian Trail. Also during this time, he solicited donations of hiking gear from manufacturers, basing his choice of equipment on his five years of field-testing during college breaks. He planned his menu for six months, dehydrated veggies and fruit, and packed boxes that his support team mailed to him at different stages along the Appalachian Trail. And he trained by lugging the fifty pound pack while walking the steepest inclination of a treadmill at the gym, since Ohio is flat country. Jeff's journey was backed by a support team of relatives and Sunshine's development department who mailed boxes with supplies and maps to towns along the trail; opened his mail and paid his bills; submitted press releases and updated his web page; published his newsletter; tracked donations; and mailed thank-you notes. Jeff had worked for hours every day soliciting donations from businesses and organizations, speaking at meetings, and doing interviews. Still, he had not met his financial goal before he set out on the Trail. The southern end of the Appalachian Trail is located at Springer Mountain, Georgia. As a Georgia resident, I was particularly interested in Jeff's description of the Georgia terrain he encountered on this first leg of the journey. I recently visited the trail head at Amicalola Falls State Park, where Jeff began his trek. The drive from Amicalola to the Walasi-Yi Center on Blood Mountain doesn't take long at all, but it's three days of hiking up and down mountains. During this early stretch, Jeff acquired his trail name, a nickname like a CB handle that thru-hikers are known by on the trail. Jeff had mistakenly placed the wrong insoles in his shoes (left insole in the right shoe) and because of this, he suffered terrible blisters. Hence, his trail name became “Wrongfoot.” Jeff introduces us to all the hikers he met along his journey, giving us their trail names. We meet “Burp,” “Magaroni,” (sp. correct!), “Packrat,” “Coke,” “Comfortably Numb,” and the infamous “Vegetarians” (a group of foul-mannered bullies that gave other thru-hikers a bad name by their deeds). We get acquainted with these hikers as they slog through weeks of rain, snow, sleet, jagged rocks, and beautiful sunsets, walking alone or in pairs, meeting in shelters at night. Jeff has a close brush with danger from one hiker along the way, but far more often he meets kind strangers in wayside towns who offer “trail magic,” like snacks, rides, and laundry facilities, to the thru-hikers as they come down off the trail for a rest. Jeff Alt's accounts of meeting and interacting with other hikers, animals, and the intensity of Mother Nature are all steps along the way to his own self-discovery and spiritual epiphany. In a moment of danger, he learns that he is not alone in a very profound sense. At the end of his journey, Jeff Alt had succeeded in meeting and surpassing his fundraising goal, netting $16,000 and inspiring an annual walk in Toledo, Ohio, which has raised $40,000 to date. His book, A Walk For Sunshine, illustrates the magic of involving others in achieving your dreams. A must-read! A
Walk For Sunshine is published by Dreams Shared Publications.
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