CROP, carnival and cake

"We have a great church, and many people volunteered to make this a wonderful event." Photo: Margie Diamon

Margie Diamon from the Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church shares the following creative idea which yielded a wonderful harvest:  “We held our CROP Hunger Walk on August 23, 2009. It was held immediately following our worship service.  We held it in conjunction with a carnival. The CROP Hunger Walk and carnival raised $1,528 this year. This is one of the major ways our Mission Team raises money to support our Six Lanes of Giving through the United Methodist Church.  Last year we raised just over $900, so we really consider this year's event a huge success.

“We also had a cake/pie walk.  Ladies of the church baked 36 cakes and 9 pies to give away as prizes.  We had a fishing game, a pie throw (our Pastor Jim Stilwell was the target) and a couple of other games.  Jerry and Judy Caswell, members of our church, donated a roast pig and all of the trimmings for this event.”

CROP Hunger Walk Volunteers – A great blessing to others

What a great day for the Leelanau County CROP Hunger Walk. Kristen Hansen,  granddaughter of the late Rev. Pam Fulton, last year's CROP Hunger Walk chair, raised over $2,200! Pictured are Lynn Hansen (Pam’s daughter), Kristen Hansen, and Ed Havitz (Pam’s husband). Photo: Sue Cady

Over 600 volunteers put their heads and their hearts together this year to plan 120 fall Michigan CROP Hunger Walk events.  They prepared the way for about 2,000 Recruiters to bring stories, materials and ideas back to their churches and groups to sign up Walkers and to inform and enthuse sponsors.  The efforts of the Recruiters resulted in some 15,000 Walkers and other participants coming to CROP Hunger Walks all over Michigan in September and October, with an anticipated harvest of about $1.5 Million.

What a tremendous outpouring of love for one’s neighbors all over the world.  Scores of local Michigan hunger agencies – food pantries and food banks, shelters for the homeless and abused, community food gardens and soup kitchens – will be given a significant boost to their efforts to give comfort and food resources to their clients from the CROP Hunger Walk funding.  Hope will be given to the poorest of the poor in the form of literacy training, agricultural education and tools, access to fresh clean water, psycho-social activities to assist traumatized children in war-torn regions of the world and much more.  The tremendous efforts of the many CROP Hunger Walk volunteers make the mission of CWS possible.

Sandra Campbell is a great example of the dedication and capability of the CROP Hunger Walk volunteer.  Sandra has been among the Walk leaders for the Clare Area CROP Hunger Walk since its inception 25 years ago.  She has served ably in various roles, as Coordinator, Publicity chairperson and Primary Recruitment Contact, during this time.  This year, she did Publicity and Recruitment.  By the time all of the funds came in this year, this Walk will have raised nearly $250,000 over its history.  The Organizational and Recruiter Orientation Meetings had nearly 100% participation of planning team members and church/group Recruiters, thanks in great part to Sandra’s diligent calling and e-mailing.  She kept in frequent contact with Michigan Region Church World Service office, discussing ideas and clarifying information.  Newspaper coverage was good and local informational sheets were provided at the meetings.  And, of course, it culminated in a great Walk Day.

The wisdom of age drives the efforts of 88-year-old Lucille Ogden to raise funds to eradicate hunger and poverty locally and internationally.   On Sunday, October 4, 2009, the Blue Water (Port Huron) Area celebrated its 29th annual CROP Hunger Walk and Mrs. Ogden recalls participating in all of these CROP Hunger Walks.  As a member of First United Methodist Church, she single-handedly raised $1,120 this year.  Apparently Mrs. Ogden is such a wonderfully skilled fund-raiser that her Pastor complained that he couldn't get anyone to sponsor him because Mrs. Ogden had gotten to them first.  Nevertheless, Mrs. Ogden, without hesitation, generously sponsored her Pastor!  For many years, Lucille Ogden has also been involved in the CROP Hunger Walk through Church Women United, an ecumenical organization, which has brought together women from many churches to sponsor a CROP Coffee that is held before the Walk.  During the last two years, Mrs. Ogden has stepped up and started hosting the CROP Coffee in her home.  Thank you so much Mrs. Ogden for your caring, active spirit!

And CWS/CROP Michigan thanks Dianne Johnson, Co-coordinator of the Blue Water Area CROP Hunger Walk, for sharing Lucille Ogden’s story with us.

The legacy of CROP Hunger Walking has been passed on in an inspiring way from grandmother to granddaughter in the Leelanau CROP Hunger Walk!  Rev. Pam Fulton, a long-time coordinator and outstanding supporter of the CROP Hunger Walk passed away in the spring, following a brief battle with cancer.  Pam walked her worship in the various places she served in ministry, starting Walks where there were none, and cultivating CROP Hunger Walks in other communities in which she served.  Pam, and her husband, Ed Havitz, have been wonderful advocates of the CROP Hunger Walk and for those in need. She had passed the torch to her daughter, Lynn Hansen, as well as to her granddaughter, Kristen Hansen.  This fall Kristen, a high school senior, was the Recruiter at the Suttons Bay Congregational Church.  Not only did she recruit others, but she Walked in honor and memory of her grandmother, raising more than $2,200 to alleviate hunger and poverty, a fitting tribute to the life and witness of Pam!  Kristen has been participating in CROP Hunger Walks since she was an infant and will continue to extend mercy and compassion to those in need, step by step, accepting the baton of CROP Hunger Walking and passing it on to those she meets along the way. We commend Kristen, her mother Lynn, her grandfather Ed and the legacy of her grandmother Pam!

The promise and covenant given to Abraham continues today through the feet of those who walk among us:  “You have been blessed to be a blessing.”   Thank you for blessing us with your presence, participation and support.  We pray we will be a blessing to others through your gifts of time and treasure!

Quad Cities CROP Hunger Walk broadens community involvement

Members of the local Muslim community were enthusiastic participants in the Quad Cities CROP Hunger Walk, Oct. 4. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Lisa Killinger

Now in its 38th year, this fall was the first time the Quad Cities CROP Hunger Walk involved the local Muslim community. About 640 participants walked the six-mile route that began in Davenport, Iowa, and crossed the Mississippi River to Rock Island, Illinois, on Oct. 4. About 20 of the walkers were from the Muslim community.

Julia Alvarez serves as honorary chair of CROP Hunger Walk
Renowned author helps launch first-ever ‘solidarity walk’ in Dominican Republic

Renowned author and honorary chair of the Middlebury (VT) CROP Hunger Walk Julia Alvarez (center) and CWS New England Regional Director Bert Marshall are joined by Middlebury CROP Hunger Walk committee members (l-r) Ellen McKay, Laurie Jordan and Patty Hallam. Photo: Lindsay Jordan

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. Legendary author and Middlebury College writer-in-residence Julia Alvarez will lead dozens of Middlebury College students and others who care about fighting hunger as honorary chair of the Addison County CROP Hunger Walk, on Oct. 4.

“We are walking, to raise money for people in need around the world and in our own communities,” Alvarez said. “But CROP walk is more than a fundraiser.”  Alvarez is author of the highly acclaimed novels In the Time of the Butterflies, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and Saving the World. 

Now in their 40th year, Church World Service’s CROP Hunger Walks raise some $16 million in more than 2,000 communities across the U.S. Money raised from the events help to fund hunger-fighting programs in each CROP Hunger Walk community and through Church World Service around the globe.

“To say that we’re thrilled to have Julia take part might be an understatement,” CWS New England Regional Director, the Rev. Bert Marshall said. “She understands fighting hunger takes much more than money, it takes a demonstration of action, which is what the walk is all about.”

In addition to leading walkers in Middlebury, Alvarez has worked to create the first-ever walk held in solidarity with residents in her native Dominican Republic. Organized by her Alta Gracia sustainable farm and literacy project in Los Marranitos, Dominican Republic, residents will walk at the same time and date as the October 4 Middlebury event.

Two Middlebury College graduates who are volunteering at the farm in Los Marranitos, Ria Shroff and Eli Berman, are organizing the solidarity Walk.  "The walk in Los Marranitos is meant to show how people around the world can unite and act on the ever-present scourge of hunger,” Marshall said.

“Throughout the United States people are walking in solidarity with women and children and men around the world who walk every day in their struggle for existence,” Alvarez said. “Children and men and women, carrying firewood, babies, crops, looking for food, shelter, looking for help when disaster strikes or someone in their family gets ill.”

This September, as the United States observes Hunger Action Month, CWS is asking people throughout the nation to become CROP Hunger Walkers, to support a CROP Hunger Walker in their communities or to donate online at http://www.cropwalkonline.org/. 

Call your CWS/CROP Regional Office, toll-free at 888-297-2767 or visit http://www.cropwalk.org/ to find the CROP Hunger Walk nearest you or to learn how to organize one.

A 25 year passion for the hungry

Photo: Pennridge-Perkasie CROP Hunger Walk. Photo: Rev. Dennis Hartman

The Pennridge-Perkasie, PA, CROP Hunger Walk celebrates its Silver Walk on October 11, 2009.  Amazingly, several of the CROP Walk leaders also will be celebrating their 25th year as well.  The first Walk in 1984 was ten miles in length through the Bucks County countryside.  Two of the original founders are still active in the Pennridge CROP Hunger Walk, Darwin Hendricks who handles logistics and Nancy Lyons who oversees the safety issues for the event.   Today, this CROP Hunger Walk involves 22 churches and has raised more than $20,000 annually for the past 23 years.  Why have these committed leaders continued for so many years to fight against hunger and poverty, ranking among the top ten CROP Hunger Walks in the Pennsylvania Region year after year?  Here are a few thoughts they shared: 

Rev. Dennis Hartman, Coordinator:  “The CROP Hunger Walk attests to the ecumenism of our faith, a national effort in partnership with our brothers and sisters in 35 denominations.  The CROP Hunger Walk reflects the ecumenism of our joint endeavors in the mission field.  The 25 percent that is allocated to a grassroots charity is so important and motivating.”

Darwin Hendricks, Logistics:  “The CROP Hunger Walk allows you to participate with people you may not know.  We challenge people to give and are not afraid to ask for money.  It is part of my stewardship for my church and helps the young people to participate in mission.”

Lisa Cadwallader, Recruitment Chairperson: “The children and families can participate together in the CROP Hunger Walk.  Even little children can make a difference in the lives of the hungry.”

Genevra Allen, Recruiter:  “Mission is the most important work we do at church.  Through the CROP Hunger Walk lives are changed. Improving people’s lives for the better, it’s what we are all about.”

Nancy Lyons, Safety:  “I think we can hardly pick up a newspaper or watch television and not see areas around the world in which people are really suffering because of drought, lack of food, etc.  Every time there is a disaster anywhere in the world, CWS is one of the first agencies there to help people.”

Mai Cole, Walker:   Mai Cole knows what it is like to be hungry.  For Mai death was all too real.  Mai was born in Vietnam; her mother died when she was just two days old and her father died when she was two-and-a-half.  She was put in her half-brother’s care and went to the fields with her cousin. The children slept in hay buckets made from bamboo. When her brother married a few years later, she had to work for a neighbor. Mai was five-years-old when she had her first real job.  She had to sit and ride the water buffalos and keep them from going into the rice or peanuts.  By the time she was ten-years-old, Mai was working in the rice fields.  She planted, weeded, and cut rice; she gathered and cut firewood, selling it in the towns and villages, all just to make enough money to survive.  At fourteen, her brother offered her as a bride for an older man who beat her repeatedly.  When she finally ran away to a neighbor’s house she was sold to a large wealthy family to hand wash the clothing and carry water.  Mai had many other sad experiences until she married an American G.I. and left for the United States in 1970.  Mai’s thankfulness to God is evident in the many ways she serves her family and community.  She has participated in the Pennridge-Perkasie CROP Hunger Walk for 13 years.  She knows that life is still hard for those from her homeland and throughout Southeast Asia.