wfn.org | CWS' Boulder CROP Hunger Walk enters the record books

["Lesley Crosson" <LCrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

CWS' Boulder CROP Hunger Walk enters the record books

>June 10, 2008

Editors: Photo to accompany story can be downloaded at www.churchworldservi ce.org/media/

NEW YORK -- When hunger fighting advocates in Boulder, Colo. stepped off  for the community's annual CROP Hunger Walk (http://www.churchworldservice. org/CROP/index.html) last October, they had no idea they were walking into  the record books.

But by the time the 300 or so walkers completed the 6.2 mile trek from  Community United Church of Christ through the neighborhoods and foothills  of Boulder, they had passed a significant milestone.

For the first time in the 22 years of the Boulder CROP Hunger Walk,  (www.bouldercropwalk.org) sponsored by humanitarian agency Church World  Service to raise money for its local and international hunger and poverty  fighting efforts, contributions passed the $50,000 mark. It was a first  not just for Boulder but for the entire Rocky Mountain region, which  annually hosts 40 Walks in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and  Wyoming.

"That's been our goal for several years," says walk co-coordinator Suzanne  Dysard. "I always say CROP Walk day is my favorite day of the year and  this one really was."

Working with the faith community, businesses and local residents to  organize the annual event, is more than just part-time volunteer work for  the 38-year-old business consultant.

"I treat it like a job," she says. "I really love the work and people  always ask me if I get paid to do it." She doesn't.

Art Ziemann, Rocky Mountain regional director for CWS, believes it is  impossible to put a price on volunteers like Dysard. "The best part is  that she doesn't do this to set records - she does it because she  genuinely cares about people, especially those who go to bed hungry at  night. And the difference she makes in their lives is priceless."

As a coordinator Dysard works closely with the churches and synagogues  that organize the walks. "A unique feature of the Boulder Walk is that we  walk a different route every year. We start and end at the church or  synagogue that is organizing the walk and the route we walk is planned by  that faith community."

Dysard, who lives in Boulder with her husband James, has found a way to  incorporate CROP fundraising into several aspects of her life.

In 2004 she became the nation's top online CROP Walker when she went  online and asked people to sponsor her walk by sending donations via the  web. Recently married, she invited friends and family to donate to CROP instead  of buying wedding gifts. She also wears a CROP T-shirt and carries a CROP  sign with her when she travels.

Those travels have taken the North Carolina native to Vietnam in 2004,  where Church World Service has worked for several decades bringing safe  water and sanitation to remote villages and to Kenya in 2006 to visit  other CWS projects. The trips were instructive for someone who has spent a  large part of her life raising money for CROP. She first walked in Boone,  N.C. as a college student, then in Charlotte, and, Dysard says, she  "really got involved" once she moved to Boulder.

"I got a chance to see the money we raise through CROP Walks in action.  That made a very big impact on me."

Church World Service, which receives up to 75 percent of the proceeds from  CROP Hunger Walks in some 2,000 communities across the country, uses the  money to support a broad range of poverty and hunger-fighting projects in  developing nations worldwide.

Rising food prices and a failing economy are on Dysard's mind as she  recruits volunteers and walkers for the upcoming Boulder Walk (www.boulderc ropwalk.org) on October 26, which will again donate 24 percent of the  money raised to Community Food Share, a Boulder clearinghouse for local  food pantries, and one percent to the local Bread for the World hunger-figh ting advocacy organization.

"It will be interesting to see how the poor economy will affect donations  because food banks are really concerned about how many hungry people they  are going to have to feed this year."

Of course, goal setter that she is, Dysard is hoping to exceed the take  from last year's milestone-setting walk. She laments that "the weather was  gray and rainy" for the 2007 walk-although the chill didn't slow the  walkers' march into the CROP Hunger Walk record books.

Sunshine would be ideal but even if this year's walk day weather is bleak,  the bottom line remains the same for Dysard: "It's a great way to make a  difference in the world."

Media Contact: Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net