Along stretches of blazing Arizona highway, refrigeration trucks carried water and ice for the hot, dehydrated troops. Evacuation helicopters and traveling medical centers stood at the ready. Hundreds of portable johns lined the byroads of the nation. "It's like planning the invasion of Normandy and Hannibal's crossing of the Alps on the same day," said Fred Droz, national director of Hands Across America, last Sunday's transcontinental charity event to raise money for America's hungry and homeless. "But at least Hannibal had elephants."
It was the latest, though certainly not the last, of the recent charity "megathons." Holding hands in a human chain that, in theory at least, was supposed to stretch from coast to coast, an eclectic, Fellini-like crowd was expected to sing America the Beautiful (key lyric: "From sea to shining sea") at 3 p.m. EDT, as well as the trendier anthems We Are the World and Hands Across America.
Among the hand holders: Jazzercise enthusiasts along Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, 500 Little Leaguers at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, scores of drum majorettes, dozens of disabled teenagers, gatherings of Hopi and Navajo tribesmen, a family of robots, some 20 parachutists, 600 guests celebrating an Italian wedding, a mile-long chain of blind people whose places were paid for by Singer Lionel Richie, a group of Hell's Angels, and hundreds of the destitute themselves. Along the way: concerts, frat parties, even a couple of weddings. Everyone wanted to get in on the act: a group of lifers at New Jersey State Prison in Rahway generously offered to line up across the Arizona desert--where less toughened participants feared to tread--but in the end their compassion only got them a spot in the handholding line across the prison yard.
When the drive for participants began in October, Hands Across America estimated that some 5.4 million people were needed for the linkup from Long Beach, Calif., to New York Harbor. But by last weekend only half that number had indicated an interest in lining up. Though each person was asked to contribute $10, by hand-holding time, line crashers were welcomed. Said California Line Chief Anne Jensen: "We're counting on everybody to bring a friend."
To bridge the human gaps, Hands organizers were expected to string miles of red and blue ribbons and rope. Cars and trucks were to be lined up trunk to hood. At week's end an armada of catamarans and sailboards hauled to the site by their owners made a surreal sea as they floated bow to stern on a hill west of Albuquerque. Hands Tennessee Organizer Tif Bingham said the event would be a huge success, no matter how broken the chain. After all, he pointed out, "the main purpose of Hands Across America is to raise money for the poor and hungry."