A Walk For Sunshine by Jeff Alt
April 15th, 2008Title: A Walk for Sunshine
Author: Jeff Alt
Publisher: Dreams Shared Publications (2007)
I should probably start this review with a mini-disclaimer: Jeff Alt lives a few doors down from me. We were talking one day and he invited my wife and me to a reading at a local Barnes & Noble. He said he was a hiker and an author and was giving a talk about his most recent book A Walk For Sunshine:A 2,160 Mile Expedition for Charity on the Appalachian Trail. Sounded interesting, and we wanted to support our neighbor’s art, so we went to the reading. Man, am I glad I went!
A Walk for Sunshine tracks Alt’s 7 month long journey over 2,160 miles, completely covering the Appalachian Trail. Alt undertook this journey as a fundraiser for Sunshine Home, a facility that cares for disabled people, including Alt’s brother. He devoted all of his time before the walk to training and fund raising, eventually raising $16,000 for the Sunshine Home.
The book is filled with stories about his time “thru hiking”, including how he got his trail name, “Wrongfoot”. At the very beginning of his journey, he exuberantly waved goodbye to his family and started on the trail. Very soon thereafter his feet began to hurt, which was perplexing because he had been training for months! After walking for miles he eventually found out what the problem was: his boot insoles were in the wrong shoes! Alt does a fantastic job of keeping the reader entertained with stories (like sleeping the night with a skunk on his feet!) while describing what his emotions were during the long journey.
Alt is a very engaging speaker and he obviously loves what he does. It was really nice to spend some time listening to an author tell their story. I have a ton of respect for him, and others like him. I get tired and bored when I walk out to my car…much less walking for 7 months! Anyway, I highly recommend checking out A Walk For Sunshine and Alt’s other book, A Hike For Mike.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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April 15th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I have read both of Jeff’s book and loved them! What an awesome person.