Saturday in Shoreline Park

The information revolution has made volunteering much easier. Needs are publicized, skills, money, and time are matched to tasks, and coordination between and within organizations is much improved. But traditional methods can be effective, too. Last weekend the Volunteer Center of Silicon Valley (VCSV) held its fundraising walkathon, the 15th annual Human Race in Mountain View.

I normally don’t do more for charity than open my checkbook, but no one else was available to represent our Foster City church. Besides, the doctor said that I should walk every day, and this year’s miracle nutrient—Vitamin D—is produced by exposure to sunlight.

The ladies in the booth for the Interfaith Hospitality Network gave me a yellow shirt and fortified me with a blueberry muffin.

Pushing aside thoughts of skin cancer and cardiac arrest, I embarked on a pace of 15 minutes to a mile (which sounds better than 4 miles per hour) and eased past an eight-year-old on roller skates and a women with a spaniel. An 80-year-old man with a cane ate my dust.

National Semiconductor, one of the fixtures in the valley, was one of the principal sponsors and sent a team of over 100 blue-shirted volunteers. Their enthusiasm was an indication perhaps that the harsh working atmosphere of the seventies and eighties had been banished. Somehow, National Semi has survived into the 21st century while larger, sexier companies are long gone.

I finished the five kilometer walk at 9:30 and helped myself to another muffin. It doesn’t count if it’s for a worthy cause. © 2008 Stephen Yuen