200 Put Their Best Foot Forward to Fight Hunger

Lots of people picked Saturday to walk Ventura County’s sunny coastline, but only about 200 got money for doing it.

Backed by the donations of co-workers, neighbors, relatives and friends, participants in FOOD Share’s eighth annual Hike Against Hunger walked from Ventura as far north as Carpinteria.

Some of the hikers, the long-haulers who were aiming for 30 miles, will continue on to Santa Barbara today.

“To be out walking all weekend and end up in Santa Barbara is just a wonderful feeling--very relaxing,” FOOD Share Executive Director Jim Mangis said. “You feel like you’ve really gotten away.”

Last year’s hike raised $24,000 for FOOD Share, Ventura County’s food bank. Organizers were shooting for $30,000 this year.

The money raised will help maintain FOOD Share’s trucks, which deliver surplus food for distribution at county agencies.

This year’s hike honored Bill Mitchell, a FOOD Share volunteer who helped found the event in 1992 and died of a heart attack last November. Mitchell’s wife, Nancy, said she and her husband came up with the idea for the hike while walking the coast near Ventura.

“I said, ‘This is terrific. I could walk all the way to Santa Barbara.’ ”

So the next year, with about 15 friends, they did.

At first, the hike covered 30 miles from Ventura to Santa Barbara over two days. Since then, FOOD Share has offered shorter loops--two, four and eight miles this year--to accommodate more people.

“There were a lot of people who said, ‘We’d love to do it, but we don’t have two days,’ ” Mangis said.

But many of Saturday’s hikers had chosen to go all the way, followed by a FOOD Share truck with water, trail mix and strawberries. After walking about 17 miles Saturday, some of the 30-milers planned to spend the night at a motel in Carpinteria before lacing up their walking shoes this morning for the remaining distance.

“Once a year, you’ve got to show you can do anything if you try hard enough,” said Nancy Mitchell, whose sponsors contributed about $1,000 toward her hike.

Hike veterans Frank Filardo and Ed Shatsky planned to walk both days, but were not spending the night in Carpinteria.

“Our wives don’t let us out of the house overnight,” said Filardo, who was walking along Pacific Coast Highway near Faria Beach.

Though some hikers chose to walk alone, with just a Walkman or a dog, many were participating in groups. The event’s sponsor, Pierpont Racquet Club, fielded a large crew, as did an Oxnard law firm, the Lions Club and Nordhoff High School’s cross-country team and Interact service club.

“If I wasn’t out here, I’d probably be somewhere eating,” said Ray Nickelberry, who walked several miles Saturday with friends from St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Oxnard. “I’m already sore.”

Members of Girl Scout Troop 513 of Ventura collected $250 for their walk, plus a few ladybugs found along the beach.

“We’re just keeping them for luck for the raffle,” said 10-year-old Alyssa Gutierrez.

At a post-hike celebration for the short-distance crowd at San Buenaventura State Beach, walkers had a chance to win baskets of soap and shampoo, a painting or an immense bottle of kumquat vinegar. There were refreshments, a band and masseuses on hand to relieve sore muscles.

Blisters were a problem for those hikers heading to Santa Barbara. During a lunch break at Hobson County Park, Loretta Collet of Oxnard applied moleskin patches to her aching feet.

“I’m going to [walk] the L.A. Marathon, so I thought this would be good training,” she said.

Collet’s friend, Marion Hovet, had also taken off her shoes, revealing a dime-sized blister.

“They probably won’t let me take my shoes off in Santa Barbara,” Hovet said. “I’ll get a ticket.”