THE CROP WALK

In the late 1970’s and through the 1980’s, delegates from 14 town churches met monthly as the Southington Social Action Council.  That group, and the churches they represented, founded 3 community service organizations: our soup kitchen, Bread for Life; Southington’s Food Pantry; and The Margaret Griffin Early Childhood Center.  The group also started, in 1978, our first Southington Community Crop Walk to help alleviate local and global hunger.  That October, 136 walkers, 32 of the from our church, walked for 10 miles from our church to Meriden Ave, down Meriden Ave. to South End, down South End to Savage, up Savage to East St., East St. to Berlin St., Berlin to Pleasant, Pleasant to Hobart, and back North Main to our church for coffee, juices, sandwiches and desserts.  In all, $2638 was raised, $503 of it from our church.  Every October, that same 10 mile route was walked, rain or shine, until 1992, when Vic Visockis from our church coordinated the event and shortened it to a 10K (6.2 mi.) walk.  For many years, until just a couple years ago, our church had the most walkers and raised the most money, often more than the combined total of all other churches in town.  Last year, our church’s 50 walkers raised $6,065.  Our own Lois Hall has long been our Crop Walk’s leading money-raiser and is one of the top Crop Walk fund-raisers in New England.  PLEASE  HELP  US !