Walk for the Homeless

Today my family and our good friends the Villas participated in a charity walk for the homeless in Portland. The walk was put on by the Portland Rescue Mission and sponsored by some local businesses. We could not have asked for a better day, it was sunny and cool in the morning and warmed up as the day went on and I've got the sunburn to prove it. This was the first charity walk put on by this organization. As successful as it was I'm sure it won't be the last.

The walk consisted of two miles through beautiful downtown Portland. We started at Pioneer Courthouse Square and headed south to the park blocks and Portland State. There we hit the crowd at the Portland Farmers Market and plowed right through. That was a little awkward. Many of the shoppers appear bewildered at the sudden surge of people.

Along the way we talked and laughed, but mostly we corralled the kids. You know kids, they need to climb through and on anything and everything. If it was up to them the walk would have taken all day instead of an hour.

Then it was east through the lovely apartments and parks to head back to the Square where it all began.

Back at the square they announced the prizes for the highest sponsorship and the grand total. The event raised over $52,000 for the Rescue Mission. One girl who looked about 10 raise over $1,000 in sponsorship. Impressive. Once the financial were done we were treated to a concert by Rescue, a local accapella group. They were pretty good.

For those of you who sponsored either me, my wife or one of my kids we thank you. For those that feel jipped that we didn't ask and you are thinking it would have been nice to have been part of this, guess what? It's not too late, just click here.

After the walk we walked some more. We headed to the Saturday Market and then down to the water front. All in all a great day to be out and about. Thank God for the sunshine it was great.