130 March South on Trek to Benefit Needy Children of Tijuana

One hundred and thirty Southern Californians braved scalding temperatures Sunday to begin an eight-day, 200-mile trek from Woodland Hills to Tijuana.

The event, the 14th annual walkathon sponsored by Los Ninos, a nonprofit organization based in San Ysidro, will benefit the poor children of Tijuana, said David Donovan, who is serving as the group’s navigator.

Donovan, a 43-year-old letter carrier from La Habra, said that this is the 12th year he has participated in the walkathon.

“We used to walk from Santa Barbara to Tijuana,” he said. However, Donovan said that the group was forced to shorten the event this year by two days because it was becoming increasingly difficult for people to take off seven work days.

Most of the walkers appeared to be in their early 20s, but that didn’t seem to bother 73-year-old Kay Hughes of San Diego as much as the 100-degree heat. “I was hoping for some June bloom,” Hughes said as she huffed and puffed her way up Sepulveda Boulevard.

Donovan said the group planned to walk between 20 and 25 miles a day. He said churches and synagogues were providing shelter and food for walkers along the entire route.

Marchers began the trek at 8 a.m. from Louisville High School in Woodland Hills, stopped at St. Cyril’s Catholic Church in Encino for lunch and planned to spend Sunday night at Leo Baeck Temple in West Los Angeles.

To help avoid heat stroke and to reduce the chance of injuries, three vans are accompanying the walkers, Donovan said.

Members of the group, which took pledges for each mile walked, said they expected to raise more than $60,000. Some of the money will be used to buy medical supplies and to build shelter. But Donovan said the majority of money will be used to buy food for the needy children of Tijuana.

“We have a worldwide hunger problem,” Donovan said. “We have so much in the United States, we need to share it with less fortunate people.”