Rain doesn’t stop CROP walkers at Maplewood

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Monday, October 6, 2008

People who had collected pledges to fight hunger weren’t about to let some light rain stop them from participating in a six-mile walk Sunday afternoon at Maplewood State Park east of Pelican Rapids. The event was the 24th CROP (Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty) walk.

By 2:15 p.m. about 45 walkers had signed the registration sheets.

“This is a good turnout by some dedicated people, considering that the weather isn’t ideal,” said CROP volunteer Chelsea Strand. “The walkers know this is for a good cause — to help fight worldwide hunger.”

Strand and Ruth Holmgren worked at the Lions Club food stand inside the picnic shelter recently dedicated to Josh Hanson, a Pelican Rapids High School graduate and soldier who died two years ago in Iraq. The Rotary Club served beverages and snacks at the halfway point of the walk.

Neighbors walking together to take a stand against hunger in the world was the theme Sunday at Maplewood. The goal nationwide is to raise awareness and funds for international relief and development, as well as local hunger-fighting.

As in previous years, walkers represented Pelican Rapids area churches and organizations. Three-fourths of the funds go toward international relief and one-fourth goes to the Pelican Rapids Food Shelf.

“We’re fortunate to have so many walkers who have raised money through pledges all these years,” said Ben Woessner, a member of the Pelican Rapids City Council. “Many people have also volunteered in other capacities, as well.”

On Sunday, walkers and volunteers at Maplewood State Park noted that hungry people in developing countries typically walk as much as six miles a day to get food, water and fuel. That’s why six miles is the designated goal for each CROP walker.

“Local volunteers walk in solidarity with people’s struggle for existence,” said volunteer Julie Tunheim. “Since our first local CROP Walk in 1984, we’ve raised over $97,000.”

The 2008 financial totals should be known later this week, after all pledges have come in.

Since 1947 tens of thousands of people in communities across the United States have taken part in CROP. The first CROP hunger walk took place in 1969 at Bismarck, N.D.

Globally, Church World Service supports a broad range of poverty fighting projects in 80 countries. They include the digging of wells in villages in Africa and building cisterns in Palestine to improve local access to water.