Walking For Wildlife One Weekend Morning

By Shannon Hicks

“Mom, we have 30 people!” Liza Tananbaum shouted to her mother shortly before 10 am last Saturday morning as she and her friend Julia Shuman checked off the names of those who were gathering to join the girls on their Walk For Wildlife.

Liza and Julia had planned the event, a fundraiser for National Wildlife Foundation, after hearing about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and deciding they wanted to do something to help the wildlife being affected by the disaster.

The July 17 event raised more than $800; “Checks are still coming in,” Julia reported Tuesday morning. The girls asked for each walker to consider donating at least $5, and they raised additional funds by creating and selling seashell creatures — fanciful creations with seashells, googly eyes and stones.

Cupcakes were also prepared by the girls under the guidance of Beth Tananbaum, who operates Peace, Love and Cupcakes. The vanilla cupcakes had melted milk chocolate inside each cake, vanilla frosting that had been colored with teal food coloring, and then topped with a white chocolate seahorse, fish, turtle, starfish, or shark.

Walkers also had the opportunity to take their chance on raffle prizes including gift certificates from the Ice Cream Shop, Carminuccio’s, Newtown Nails, and Anytime Costumes, a beta fish, two Walk For Wildlife baseball hats, and a Webkinz.

“It went better than we thought it would,” added Liza. “We had more people than we expected, and raised a lot more money than we thought we would.”

Participants spent about 45 minutes with the girls, who covered a 2½-mile loop that started from and returned to Cobblers Mill Road in Sandy Hook, with water stops set up along the way.

“It was so hot that by the time we reached some of the water stops our ice had all melted,” said Julia. “It was ok though. We still had water.”

“Some people were trying to get us to go faster during the walk, it was so hot,” said Liza. She and Julia had planned for the walk to last at least an hour, if not longer. “They kept trying to get us to run, but it wasn’t the Run For Wildlife,” she laughed.

Friends, neighbors, and even strangers who had heard about the event and wanted to help showed up Saturday morning. When they stepped off shortly after 10, it was a group of all ages who were following Liza and Julia, who were carrying a Walk For Wildlife banner made specially for the morning.

 “We were stunned by how many people came, even people who didn’t sign up in advance,” said Liza, who, along with Julia, would like to thank everyone who helped them and participated in their special event.