WALKING FOR MONEY

by Gina Sestak

Does anybody else remember Sidney J. Harris? He was a newspaper columnist many years ago who would sometimes write about "things I learned while looking up other things." I felt a kinship with him while preparing this post because, while I never did find the information I was looking for, I did find some other strange and interesting tidbits.

I had intended to write about charity walks, a subject fresh in my mind because I spend part of Sunday morning walking to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. It was one of those events in which volunteers walk/run/bike/grow beards/sit in an imitation jail cell, or engage in some other activity wholey unrelated to the sponsoring charity. This behavior is supposed to motivate other people to contribute money. Oddly enough, it works.

I started to wonder, though, where this idea originated. Who came up with it?

I turned to the internet and tried searching "Origin of Charity Walks." After a few hours, I had no idea how the charity walk idea originated. I did, however, find that this query will bring up such disparate information as Origin of Providence Hospital as an Insane Asylum: http://www.chelationtherapyonline.com/articles/p215.htm and Wyandot Popcorn Museum: http://www.wyandotpopcornmus.com/hmuseum.htm.

My favorite, though, was the Detroit Zombie Walk, which collected 1,018 pounds of nonperishable food. I couldn't help but wonder who accepted that food though, since the same web page proclaims, "Brains are yummy."

How about you? What strange and interesting things have you learned while looking up other things?