Photo by The
Carolina Scoop's Elizabeth Mayhew People began registering for the
annual Lincolnton Crop Walk around 2 p.m. Sunday.
THE
24th ANNUAL LINCOLNTON CROP WALK TAKING STEPS IN THE
FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER
Video by The Carolina
Scoop's Jon Mayhew Pastor Charles Stevens with Pisgah
United Methodist Church
in Long Shoals talks about the Lincolnton Crop
Walk.
By Jon Mayhew
LINCOLNTON
-- For as many years as she can
remember, 92-year-old Gladys Rumfelt has been
participating
in the annual Crop Walk Against Hunger in
Lincolnton.
Photo by The
Carolina Scoop's Elizabeth Mayhew 92-year-old Gladys Rumfelt was the
oldest walker at the 24th annual Lincolnton Crop
Walk.
She participated in the walk as last year's
oldest walker and she arrived Sunday at S. Ray
Lowder Elementary in Lincolnton
as the oldest walker participating this year.
"I enjoy walking and look forward to seeing
people," said Rumfelt. "I feel like I'm
helping somebody. Walking is funt to me."
Rumfelt's $60
she raised is part of what the walk hopes to
raise, according to Pisgah United Methodist
pastor Charles Stevens.
Each year the
walk raises about $8,000; Stevens said he was
hoping to raise about $10,000 with the 100
walkers
participating in this year's Crop Walk.
Photo by The
Carolina Scoop's Elizabeth Mayhew Pastor Charles Stevens with Pisgah United
Methodist Church talks about the walk. See the
video above.
"We walk because they do, that's our
slogan," said Stevens. "In many
countries, people will walk 20 miles to get food
and water."
Stevens said the
way money is raised is participants get
sponsorships to walk all or part of the 10
kilometer (6 mile) course.
Stevens said the
early years of the walk were held at Lincolnton
High School. The walk moved to First Baptist
Church, then
moved to S. Ray Lowder Elementary about 10 years
ago.
A quarter of the
proceeds raised Sunday go to Christian Ministries
of Lincolnton. The rest would go to the
international
organization Church World Services.
"The
proceeds will go towards hunger causes,"
said Christian Ministries' Susan Brymer.
Some people,
like Rumfelt, wouldn't walk the full course. For
others who tried, Lincoln County Life Saving Crew
was
there in case there was a problem.
Photo by The
Carolina Scoop's Elizabeth Mayhew Besides an ambulance, members of
Lincoln County Life Saving Crew also had a new
gator to help with walkers.
To alert rescue
workers of a potential problem, the Lincoln
County Amateur Radio group was at the walk.
According to
Cliff Brommer, it's about the 10th year the group
has helped with the Crop Walk.
"Throughout
the walk, people were stationed to make sure
everything was OK," said Byommer. "If
they had any
medical problems, we could radio and they'd be
taken care of."
To illustrate
his point, Brommer remembered a Christmas parade
in Lincolnton that turned out to be memorable.
"We had a
person fall out and one of our radio operators
called for rescue," said Brommer. "They
saved the guy's
life."
Global
humanitarian agency Church World Service said it
expects some 2,000 communities to join in hunger
walks
in the coming year under the banner of CROP:
Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty.
August
marked the 60th anniversary of CROP--the
community hunger appeal of Church World
Service--and the
beginning of the fall CROP Hunger Walks season,
in which tens of thousands of people in
communities across the
U.S. will sacrifice a few hours (and a blister or
two) to raise money and show solidarity with
impoverished
people struggling to become self-sufficient. The
CROP Walkers' motto: We walk because they walk!
"It
still surprises some Americans that there are
people here in the richest nation
in the world who go to bed hungry because they
cannot afford to buy food," says Rev. John
L. McCullough,
executive director and CEO of Church World
Service. "These local CROP Hunger Walks,
organized by
individuals and faith communities in cities and
towns all across the U.S., raise awareness about
hunger and give
people a way to help both in their own
communities and around the world."
According
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture report
"Household Food Security in the United
States, 2005,"
11 percent of U.S. homes did not have access
"to enough food for an active, healthy life
for all household members"
at least some time during the year.
In
what has become an annual tradition in the
thousands of communities that participate, an
interfaith, multi-cultural
collection of CROP walkers encourage friends,
neighbors, colleagues, merchants and places of
worship to donate
dollars to support their participation in walks
of up to 10 km. Participants, many with readily
identifiable red and white
signs, range in age from babies in strollers to
seniors--and even the occasional jogger.
The
first-ever CROP Walks took place in the late
1960s. Over the decades since, more than 5
million walkers have raised millions to fight
hunger.
