by Kirby Lindsay, posted 26 September 2014
The Fremont Baptist Trollsters want you – to walk, to donate or to just come out and cheer! “We want to reach out,” observed Team Leader Sarah Weathers, “and we hope people will join us and have fun together.”
On Sunday, October 5th, at 12:30p, the Fremont Baptist Trollsters will walk in the Seattle CROP Hunger Walk, a community-wide fundraiser to fight hunger in our area, and around the globe. The Trollsters will do the walk, organized by Church World Service (CWS,) starting at Green Lake United Methodist Church, and proceeding along the easy lake path. At the same time, and date, there will be two other CROP Hunger Walks – in West Seattle (starting at Alki Congregational United Church of Christ), and South Seattle (at Columbia Lakewood Community Church.)
The CROP Walk
A global humanitarian agency, CWS sponsors the CROP Hunger Walks, but the walks are organized, at a grass-roots, community level, by religious groups, businesses, schools and others who seek to end hunger locally and globally. When CROP Walk began, in 1947, it was an acronym for the Christian Rural Overseas Program primarily focused on helping U.S. Midwest farmers to share their grain with the hungry in post-World War II Europe and Asia.
Today, CROP Hunger Walks raise money for food and hunger-fighting development programs and partnerships, identified and supported by CWS internationally. Through donations, CWS has been able to provide seeds and tools, wells and water systems, technical training, and micro-enterprise loans to the impoverished and the hungry.
That includes the hungry here, in Seattle. Of all the funds raised, by the Trollsters and all the others who walk on October 5th, 25% will stay in our community to benefit Rainier Valley Food Bank, City Fruit, Mary’s Place, North Helpline, West Seattle Food Bank and White Center Food Bank.
The Walk for the Non-Athlete
“Of all the different walks to choose from, this one felt like something I know about,” explained Weathers, “put on by an organization I know will spend the money on partnerships with the community.” Weathers, a member of Fremont Baptist Church, led a group in last year’s CROP Walk as well.
“I’m not an athlete,” Weathers admitted, “I don’t work out.” She does do charitable work – she first encountered CWS while organizing the Fremont MLK Day Of Service – but she’s never participated in Fun Runs or 5Ks, or done triathlons like Fremont Baptist Pastor Judith Gay. Instead, she walks, a lot, on a daily basis, around the neighborhood. Weathers found the CROP Hunger Walk easy to manage, and lacking in the competition or pressure she’s seen at other walks and races.
“Wherever I see things about walks, or 5Ks, I just say not for me,” Weathers explained. She’s found about half of those who do the CROP Hunger Walk at Green Lake share her exclusive outlook – they’ll do this one, but no others. “This is something I feel I can personally do,” she observed, “This organization is so well-organized, being a part of it works for me.”
The Project For All Volunteers
Weathers, and the Trollsters, first connected with CWS in Fremont. “I met CWS through Fremont Baptist Church, and a long-term Fremont resident,” Weathers explained. Mabel Brockhoff got Fremont Baptist members to help her assemble hygiene kits for another CWS world-wide program. Then Weathers, and her husband Ralph, organized volunteers at the two MLK Service Days held in Fremont, so far, building many, many more.
CWS distributes the hygiene kits, assembled by donors all over the U.S., to disaster-affected communities world-wide – from Superstorm Sandy to the Indonesian Tsunami. Immediately after a disaster strikes, CWS gives out pre-assembled kits – which contain towel, comb, soap, toothbrush and Band-Aids – to people who have lost everything. The agency also distributes food, clothing, and medical supplies, but the hygiene kits provide a physical connection between people with plenty, who came together in community in the Fremont Baptist Church basement, with those who now have nothing, and can hold in their hands proof that donors care and want to help.
“This is something I believe in,” Weathers said about the hygiene kits and the CROP Hunger Walk. Before volunteering with CWS, Weathers researched the organization, found they put only 4.1% of donor funds towards administration, and has since met staff, including the CEO, and she feels comfortable trusting the organization. “I’m kind of a laid-back person,” she explained. “I like it when things can come together and happen. I don’t worry about it, and just let it happen.”
The Cause For All To Join
Weathers invites everyone to come out on October 5th and walk. “If you don’t feel comfortable raising money,” Weathers said, “you can join us and help raise awareness.” Sign up on the CWS provided site to join the Trollsters – or as an individual or as with your own team. “We’re led by a bagpiper,” Weathers reported about the CROP Hunger Walk, “it really gets you going.” Weathers also noted that the walk is wheelchair and stroller accessible – and, for baby boomers, there are benches along the way, and bathrooms.
For those who want to give, please visit the Trollsters donation page – or another CROP Hunger Walk page – to give what you can. Also, consider sharing this opportunity to give – and fight hunger here and abroad – through Facebook. The Fremont Baptist Trollsters raised over $1,000 last year, but with your help, they can show that our community wants to help feed the world.
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©2014 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.