Although the 235 pairs of feet in 235 pairs of “rubbah slippahs” in the 1K Slippah Walk at Magic Island Saturday morning didn’t set a new Guinness world record, organizers of the inaugural event to benefit the Wounded Warrior Ohana were grateful for the support they did receive and vowed to try again next year.
The world record for a slipper walk — 1,587 participants — is held by a small town in Arizona.
“While we didn’t set a world record, I do believe we set a state record for the most slipper walkers,” said Jesse Allen, director of the Wounded Warrior Ohana. “They were very proud to be a part of something for a first-time state record and world record attempt … . So we’re going to do it again until we break that world record and bring that record home to Hawaii where it belongs.”
The Slippah Walk, which started at 7 a.m., was overshadowed by the 41st Annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk, which started an hour later with thousands of participants.
Vietnam veteran Denny Watts, director and executive board member of the Wounded Warrior Ohana, said the organization was established “because we didn’t have any veterans organizations that dealt with the whole family.”
The nonprofit aids several hundred families each year, some with basic needs such as buying a new washer, car repairs and retrofitting bathrooms to make them handicapped-accessible. It also helps wounded veterans and their families enjoy time together, providing tickets to whale-watching tours, catamaran rides, magic shows and luau.
“We really do things to get them out of the house, take them to events, pick them up,” Watts said.
Dick Rankin, a retired Army colonel and Vietnam veteran who founded the Wounded Warrior Ohana in 2014, praised the many donors, including businesses that offer activities and those who donate cash.
All of the donations to the Wounded Warrior Ohana goes to those in need, Rankin said, and stays on the island. “We’re totally volunteers. Nobody gets paid anything,” he said.