It's nearly impossible to fathom today, but in 1986, at least five million Americans joined hands across the country for 15 minutes, forming a 4,000-mile human chain stretching from New York to Los Angeles. The widely publicized event, Hands Across America, was for a good cause. Each person gave $10 to reserve his or her place in line with the proceeds going toward fighting hunger, homelessness and poverty. Thirty-four million dollars was raised.
The mastermind behind the event was Ken Kragen, a Harvard business school graduate who started his career as a talent manager before turning to humanitarian projects like "We Are the World" and Hands Across America. On May 25, it will have been 30 years since Ken brought together Americans of every class and creed for a good cause. Decades later, Ken tells WhereAreTheyNow.Buzz, he's amazed they pulled it off.
"We did Hands Across America without the benefit of the Internet, without cell phones," Ken points out. "That's one of the most amazing things about that 30 years ago that we could pull of this unbelievable event with five-and-a-half million people holding hands from one end of America to the other end."
"We had all kinds of just amazing things happen as a part of it," Ken says. Bus drivers were pulling over and asking passengers to fill in gaps in the line. Across lakes, people used kayaks. Some people used the opportunity to get married. "The story we heard back over and over was that people appeared like the cavalry over the hill at the last minute to fill the line, so they sat there nervously in the hours so before and the last five or ten minutes, people appeared out of everywhere to fill the line, it was quite amazing."
While he believes Hands Across America helped raise awareness about homelessness, forcing the media to discuss in the subject, it hardly erased it. "These problems are totally, totally with us today. I think at the time it had considerable effect, and I think it did a lot of good, improved a lot of lives, maybe saved lives," he says. "Unfortunately, it's sort of gone away."
Ken says he's hoping the 30th anniversary revives the discussion.
Published 05/10/2016
