Walkathon

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A walkathon ( walk-a-thon ), running marathon or sponsored path is a community type or fundraising school in which the participants collect money by collecting donations or appointments for walking distance or path that has been determined. They are similar in format to fund-raising activities based on other physical activities such as marathons and cycling, but are typically not competitive and of lower intensity. The low intensity model is ideal for mobilizing broad-based community support, and as a result Walkathons typically target participants of various ages and economic backgrounds.

Walkathon is a popular fundraiser for issues affecting a large part of the population. Most commonly, Walkathon focuses on fighting or curing widespread diseases or diseases such as AIDS, Cancer, Diabetes, Lupus, and Arthritis, and participation is also often promoted as a symbol of empowerment, remembrance, or awareness of patients and their relationships.

Walkathon is also popular for elementary schools because they allow children to make a real contribution to their school, they build community, fun, encourage healthy practice, and can be very profitable.

Video Walkathon

Histori

The first known Walkathon was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1953, by the Puerto Rican actor/comedian, RamÃƒÆ'Ã‚Â³n Rivero, better known as Diplo. It runs 80 miles (from the capital of San Juan to Ponce, on the other side of the island, to raise money for the Puertorrique League of Contra el CÃƒÆ'Ã‚Â¡ncer).In the walkathon, RamÃƒÆ'Ã‚Â³n Rivero raised the equivalent of $ 85,000 in four days. Walkathon turned into a historic event that is part of the collective consciousness of Puerto Rican people across the globe and has been copied several times since then, including in 2009, when the "League", in memory of the first event, do "Undlo to San Juan" walkathon, collect nearly $ 200,000.

In 1968, the first walkathon was held in the US mainland, sponsored by the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation. After receiving a national promo from Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon, who were in the Twin Cities for the live show The Tonight Show, Minneapolis, Minnesota Walthon, called "International Walk for Development", drawing more than 3,000 pedestrians to a 33 mile route through the streets of Minneapolis. Local organizers include two high school activists, Laurel Norton of St. Paul, and Howard Freedland of Minneapolis, who convinced Johnny Carson to promote the event and organized local churches and synagogues to support the walk.

Additional roads are held in Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota, where 650 pedestrians complete the entire route 33 miles.

Other walkathon organizers include Harvey Silver and former pastor Jack Healey. On a stopover in England, when returning from the Peace Corps, they see adults participating in sponsored trips to raise money for causes. Together with Bob Schumacher, who provides public relations support, the first walkathon is held in the United States, especially with walking children, rather than adults.

On May 8, 1971, the largest coordinated national highway to date saw more than 150,000 American pedestrians in several dozen routes across the country running over 2 million miles, raising more than $ 1.2m to combat hunger. This "Walks for Development" is coordinated by the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation. May's 8th largest run is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with an estimated 20,000 pedestrians on a 31 mile route. The other major parade that day was in Indianapolis, Eugene, and Philadelphia.

This concept soon caught up with other groups, and many organizations soon adopted walkathon for fundraising.

To date, the record for the world's largest recorded walkathon has been achieved by Iglesia Ni Cristo, a religious organization based in the Philippines. This is the biggest journey to cause, which occurred on February 15, 2014, dubbed Iglesia Ni Cristo World Wide Walk For Those Affected by Hurricane Yolanda/Haiyan . It broke two Guinness world records as the largest charity trip in one place (Manila, Philippines) with 175,000 participants, and the largest charity trip in 24 hours for several venues (from Christchurch, New Zealand to Hawaii, USA) with 519,521 participants.

Maps Walkathon

Famous Walkathon

AIDS Walk
3Day Breast Cancer
March for Baby
MS Challenge Walk
Relay for Life
Walking and Stones

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Etymology

The term walkathon dates to the 1930s, when used to describe competitive marathon dance variants. This is the portmanteau of the walking words and marathon.