On Sunday, May 25, 1986, Ripley was the midpoint of Hands Across America, a public fundraising event in which more than five million people held hands for 15 minutes in an unprecedented human chain stretching across 16 states for 4,125 miles in an ostensible attempt to form a continuous line across the contiguous United States and to raise money and awareness for programs fighting adversities, hunger, and homelessness in the United States.