THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270037
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LAWRENCE MADDRY
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
SLEEPING UNDER bridges, beneath the stars or on a cot in a homeless shelter, Don March has shed 50 pounds on his 3,256-mile walk to Norfolk.
And the 60-year-old hiker for foodbanks has 7,000 more miles to cover before reaching Portland, Ore.
``I'm planning to go 10,000 miles, and I've only covered about one-third of my walk,'' he said. ``I hope to reach Atlanta for the beginning of National Foodbank Week, which begins October 15th.''
He looked fit enough to make it on time. The bearded, ruddy-cheeked, shorts-wearing former foodbank employee had the well-developed calves of a college halfback.
The bulky backpack slung over his shoulders weighed 30 pounds, but it didn't slow him down. He seemed to glide while walking down the hall into the newsroom.
``I'm walking for the foodbanks,'' he said. ``They have the capacity to feed the nation's hungry if people will help with money and food. Forty percent of food given at foodbanks goes to children. And another 40 percent goes to senior citizens. They are people who are not of working age and can't earn money for food.''
March is from Cadillac, Mich. A widower, he raised three daughters and then simplified his life after they left home. ``For years I've walked or biked everywhere I've gone,'' he said. ``My mother lives in a nursing home on the other side of town, so I had to walk six miles a day just to see her.''
As a former foodbank employee - who worked many hours of overtime without pay because he believed in the importance of his job - it seemed natural to put the walking and concern for the hungry into a project.
He began in Portland, Ore., in February and has been on the road since, stopping in towns and cities with foodbanks to pick up a meal and a place to stay.
Last weekend, he was the guest of Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, where he took time to slip into a new pair of Saucony ``Shadow Grid'' walking shoes, provided free by the company. He's already worn out three pairs of shoes.
The first pair held up for 1,016 miles, the second 860 miles. The dirty gray ones that brought him to Norfolk had covered 900 miles.
``I've also gone through a couple of dozen pairs of socks,'' he said. ``The kind of walking I do is hard on socks.''
Walking now is easier than when he started because of his weight loss.
He weighed 220 pounds when he began. He weighs 170 pounds now.
His backpack carries clothing, a sewing kit - ``the needle in it is good for puncturing blisters'' - and a water bottle, trail mix and granola bars.
From Oregon he hiked into Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and the middle Atlantic states, reaching Norfolk via Richmond. He intends to walk to California after reaching Florida and return to Oregon sometime next year.
So far he hasn't been mugged, bitten by a dog or threatened while sleeping under bridges. ``Some kids once spray painted an underpass where I had put my sleeping bag,'' he recalled, ``but that was it.''
When sleeping under the stars, he places his sleeping bag well off the road. ``Usually behind some bushes,'' he said.
In bad weather, he sometimes accepts a ride to the nearest town, but doesn't include the mileage in the 10,000 he intends to cover by 1996.
His worst walking day came early in his journey, when an enveloping snowstorm between Rapid City and Sioux Falls, S.D., turned him into a whitened statue
``I spent the next two days in a hotel waiting for the roads to clear,'' he said.
March averages 21 miles a day, beginning each walk at daybreak. ``When it's hot, I usually stop in the early afternoon,'' he said. ``The first thing I do is remove my shoes and rest my feet. I use the time before nightfall to study maps and write in my journal.''
Moments when he has paused to observe nature have been special, he said. While in eastern Washington, he spread his bedroll beneath a utility pole that a golden eagle used as a hunting platform. A pair of splashing beavers woke him when he was sleeping near a bridge in eastern Wisconsin.
``And there was a lovely full moon in Montana,'' he said. ``I had spread my sleeping back in a small aspen grove beside the road. The aspens were light colored and beautiful in the moonlight. I was admiring them when I heard a wolf howl in the distance. It seemed the perfect time to hear a wolf.''
And it's not a bad time to let the foodbank hear from you. For information on planned giving and corporate donations, phone (804) 624-1333. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/Staff
Don March has lost 50 pounds while hiking 3,256 miles in support of
foodbanks.
by CNB