[ WEEKEND ]
COURTESY OF WAIKIKI BEACH MARRIOTT RESORT
The Annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk gives participants lots to do besides walk. Past events included many booths to peruse like the cracked seed booth above, which shows the typical lighthearted spirit of the Waikiki Beach Marriott's checkpoint.
A walk down
charity laneThe Visitor Industry Charity
Walk reaches its 25th year
Walkers participating in tomorrow's silver anniversary Visitor Industry Charity Walk should be thankful the route is only seven miles long. The route 25 years ago was more than triple that distance.
'All in Da Ohana'
The 25th Annual Visitor Industry Charity WalkWhere: McCoy Pavilion, Ala Moana Beach Park
When: 6 a.m. tomorrow
Info: 923-0407 or www.charitywalk.org
Note: All walkers are required to have a minimum of $25 in donation pledges ($15 for those 18 years and under) in order to participate in the walk.
Margaret Kalima, a 30-year veteran in the hotel industry with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Hawaii, said that while "it was a much longer walk back then, it's always been a great social event, and the camraderie has continued over the years. We look at it as a fun event."
Starting and ending at McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Beach Park, the walk's route wends its way through Waikiki, to Kapiolani Park and back down Ala Wai Boulevard, with a whopping 17 checkpoints along the way, manned by all of the area's hotel personnel eager to offer refreshment and entertainment.
"The stops are fun, in and of themselves, and they become more elaborate every year," Kalima said. "We see a lot of our employees as either walkers or manning our booths. It's really family-oriented. It's been a great event as a fundraiser, from the time Mr. Holden (Bob Holden of Sheraton Hotels) started the walk in 1979 initially for the March of Dimes. His brainchild then included other charities, as more came in over the years."
While the amount of donations back then were based solely on the number of miles completed by each walker, now with a much shorter route, participants are expected to collect a minimum of either $15 or $25 in donation pledges in order to do the walk. The Charity Walk, which is held simultaneously on Kauai, Oahu, Maui and the Big Island each year, and through good and not-so-good economic times, has raised over $14 million for local charities since its inception 25 years ago. Last year, 11,100 walkers on four islands raised around $780 thousand for more than 190 charities.
COURTESY OF WAIKIKI BEACH MARRIOTT RESORT
Kids can take time out from their walk to enjoy mini carnival rides."When all of us were younger," said Lynn Matsumura, reservations supervisor with the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort, "we would see some people actually run the route. Now that we're older and slower," she said with a laugh, "someone like me helps out as a greeter at our booth. It's a great time for managers and employees to come together.
"Our booth will still have shave ice, as manned by our housekeeping staff, and instead of watermelons, we're offering oranges, because they seem a lot more manageable -- and less messy -- to eat," Matsumura said. "There will also be games and rides for the kids."
NEEDLESS to say, the Charity Walk is not meant to be a grueling race. In fact, it's so much the opposite that it's been half-jokingly called "Hawaii's longest buffet line." Besides shave ice, oranges and mini-carnivals for the kids, expect the likes of malasadas, spam musubi, manapua, cookies, chocolate-dipped strawberries ... and maybe even offered massages. And if you still haven't had your fill of food, plate lunches will be offered at route's end at McCoy Pavilion, complete with a post-walk concert featuring Ho'onu'a, Sani and Jook Joint.
COURTESY OF WAIKIKI BEACH MARRIOTT RESORT
At a past industry walk, the hotel's housekeeping staff helped spread cheer and cool off the walkers with their shave ice.
This year's honorary chairpersons for the walk (dubbed "All in Da Ohana") are comic radio personalities Lanai and Augie. They join a long line of honorary celebrity chairpersons that have included Dick Jensen, Andy Bumatai, the Brothers Cazimero, Karen Keawehawai'i, the late Loyal Garner, Jimmy Borges, Al Harrington, Danny Kaleikini, Frank DeLima and Melveen Leed.
Chief steward Bill Kirk of the Sheraton Waikiki has been there since the very beginning of the Charity Walk. "I remember setting up for the walk as an overnight activity -- set up the banquet tables around 10-11 at night, go back to the hotel, and bring back coffee and danish. Now it's evolved into this magnanimous event, with some of the hotels offering full buffet lunches at their booths. All of our departments -- engineers, human resources and the like -- all get involved, and our food servers sometimes takes care of as many as 2,000 people per line.
WWW.CHARITYWALK.ORG
Walkers and drivers beware. This is the route of tomorrow's charity walk.
"All the big boys on the (Kalakaua) strip get involved, including some of the smaller hotels like the W. And with each hotel offering up different designed T-shirts that run the gamut, and cheerleaders and high school bands along the route, it's come a long way from our small, initial meeting to help organize what was then a 20-plus mile event."
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