Walking with the Walkathon

It was cold. And it was a blast. I was assigned the sidebar for the 21st Annual Help the Homeless Walkathon and I arrived at the National Mall just before 8am to meet the group from Charlie's Place, a food kitchen located at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Dupont Circle. I had talked to volunteer Tim Green a couple of days ago, who told me to get to the mall early, "there's going to be a huge crowd."

The crowd was huge, but I found the Charlie's Place group with no problem. I brought a Marantz digital recorder with me, which was a good thing because it was too cold to take notes. I also brought a digital camera. It was challenging trying to decide which media to use during which interview. Should I focus on the cute kids? The many dogs and their owners? The homeless people lining the mall or walking with the crowd? There was an enthusiastic group of college kids jamming to the music near the stage. Should I interview them? They were, after all, from Howard and NOT American University, but they were having a good time.

Also, my cell phone was functioning, but it was so cold! And loud - there was a band playing and speakers blasting at me from various points.

In the end, I kept my focus on the crew from Charlie's Place. There were a lot of good stories there. As a radio person, I'm used to plucking 10-15 second sound-bites from an interview and writing 40 seconds of copy around it. It was interesting to record an interview, take notes and frame a photo at the same time.

For a story as big as the Walkathon, no single photo or interview could capture the enormity of the event.  Several articles are useful in telling some of the many stories to be found in a huge crowd.  The blog and video tape by Michael and Latoya and Meredith's Twitter updates captured the mood of the crowd, the cold and the atmosphere.

Reading the Twitter updates and the blog, I wasn't focused on whether there were grammar or spelling errors - in fact I didn't notice if there were any or not- what was exciting was reading about events as they unfold.  It gave me a feeling of being there - even reading about it after the fact.  I was there at the Walkathon and didn't know the Ballou High School marching band had attended until I read the Twitter coverage.  

I look forward to seeing Angel's photos and Jackie and Beth's Main story to complete what was, for me, a good experience.