Serena Becker and Jeramy Vallianos
By the time you read this, Serena Becker and Jeramy Vallianos will be in the Sonoran Desert, beginning a six-month hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. "We spent two days putting food in boxes for friends to mail," says Vallianos. "Every week or so we'll go into a town to pick up a package." While in town, they will locate an internet cafe to update the blog on their website, walkforwild.org. "It's our first try at blogging," says Becker. "We want to raise awareness of PCT areas that need protection." A South Eugene grad, Becker got involved in human rights activism as a student at The Evergreen State College. "I traveled to Rafah, in Gaza, with the Olympia-Rafah sister-city program," she notes. "Rachel Corrie, from Olympia, was killed in Rafah in 2003." In Olympia, she also met Vallianos, her boyfriend of five years, who had hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2001. The pair hopes to attract donations for the purchase of private land along the PCT. "Our goal is to raise $10,000," says Becker. "The money we raise will go to the Pacific Forest Trust to protect land in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument."
happening people
photograph and story by Paul Neevel
Eugene Weekly / 1 May 2008
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