Reed Issues Challenge for ‘Hands Across America’ : Mayor Hopes to Give Benefit a Boost

Santa Monica Mayor Christine E. Reed said Thursday that she hopes the Hands Across America benefit for the hungry and the homeless, scheduled to take place later this month, will catch the ear of state and federal policy-makers.

“Everything in America works on hype,” she said. “This is hype, and if that’s what it takes, I’m going to do it.”

Reed has challenged other Southern California mayors to a competition to see which city will be the first to sign up 5% of its population for the May 25 event, which planners hope will involve more than 6 million people nationwide.

Plans call for participants to donate $10 or more to reserve a place in a line of people holding hands from coast to coast.

“One benefit,” Reed said, “is that they’re going to provide money to assist in solving this problem, but the other benefit is to focus public attention.

“If this event really works, and it really gets a line of people simultaneously holding hands across the country, do you think the people in Washington, D. C., or Sacramento will ignore it? Of course not.”

‘Depressing’ Problem

Reed, who has been vocal in expressing residents’ frustrations about a problem she described as “depressing, irritating and awful,” said much of the blame lies with budget-cutting state and federal governments.

“They need to make the safety net bigger than it is right now,” she said. “This effort will do more to wake Washington up than the actual amount of money raised. That’s why I’m participating. Because I’m the frustrated mayor of a city with a terrible problem.”

Sponsored by USA for Africa, a charity group that raised $44.5 million for famine relief last year, the Hands Across America project hopes to distribute 50% of the proceeds to support existing programs in the United States.

Another 10% is to be set aside for immediate emergency relief and the remaining 40% is to go to fund new programs, including farmers’ cooperatives, housing rehabilitation, job training and employment centers.

Beverly Hills and West Hollywood also have endorsed the project, which is planned to extend from Long Beach up the coast to the Santa Monica Pier, then on through Westwood, Beverly Hills, the Fairfax District, West Hollywood and Hollywood before heading downtown and across the country to New York.

USA for Africa Revenue

At a Beverly Hills City Council meeting last week, state coordinator Roger Carrack said that only 2% of the revenue from USA for Africa went for expenses.

Planners hope to station 1,300 people a mile along the route. As of last week, about 175,000 volunteers had signed up in California. A total of 450,000 are needed to complete the line from the Pacific to the Arizona border.

Nationwide, close to 2 million participants have signed up, a spokeswoman said. Efforts are now being focused on the hard-to-fill empty stretches of the intermountain West, she said.