It was a great 40th Celebration York!!!!!
Over 28K was pledged on the day of the Walk and around 250 people came out to Walk and celebrate our history as the first "CROP Walk for the Hungry" in the world.
Send your gifts and pledges in today!
National Executive Director to Attend area CROP Hunger Walk
The Executive Director of Church World Service, the Rev. John L. McCullough, will be in York to participate in York’s 40th Annual CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday, October 11th, and a Special Worship Service the evening before the walk at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church. He will be here to help celebrate York’s 40th Annual CROP Hunger Walk. The York walk is the oldest CROP Hunger Walk in the nation and the world.
The 40th Celebration Worship Service at St. Rose of Lima, 950 West Market Street, York, is in recognition of the service held before the second York CROP Hunger Walk 1971. The service is Saturday, Oct 10, at 7:00 PM. All are welcome to come and participate in this service. We especially encourage persons who have participated in any of our thirty-nine CROP Hunger Walks to be with us on that evening. The Rev. John McCullough will speak. We will honor the Rev. Bill Sowers and the Rev Roger Burtner, who organized the very first CROP Hunger Walk, Annette Gunnett Reierson, the teen chairperson of the first walk, and other persons who have participated in walks over the years. Mayor John Brenner, who has participated in many CROP Walks, will join us, as will Representative Eugene DePasquale.
On Sunday, October 11, over 500 walkers will gather at Sovereign Bank Stadium in preparation to step off on York’s historic 40th Annual CROP Hunger Walk. Registration begins at 12:30 PM. A special program honoring persons from the first walk, Honorary Chairpersons of past walks, and many others will begin at 1:00 PM. The walk will begin at 1:30. Walkers will proceed to the Rail Trail via George Street and Princess Street and walk to the entrance to Regent’s Glen and return. The walk distance is 6.2 miles. There is also a min-walk inside the stadium for persons who are limited in their walking ability.
Walkers are asked to obtain sponsors to raise money for CROP. Twenty-five percent of the money raised remains in the York Community to help feed the hungry. The remainder goes to Church World Service for its work in fighting hunger around the world. Go to www.churchworldservice.org to see how your money helps to combat hunger.
The York CROP Hunger Walk is sponsored by the York County Council of Churches, which raised $1,226,291.76 dollars to fight hunger in the past 39 years.
Special Anniversary !!!
York, Pa - Historic Walk celebrates forty years of meeting the basic needs of people world-wide. On Sunday Oct. 11th – The Annual CROP Walk for the Hungry will begin at Sovereign Bank Stadium, 50 Arch St., York. Registration 12:30 - Walk 1:30.
This was the first “CROP Walk for the Hungry” in the world. In the past 39 years this Walk raised 1,226,291 dollars and 76 cents (we count the pennies!). For over a billion people in our world who try to live on less than a dollar a day – every penny counts.
Special anniversary celebrations will include: A return of the first CROP Hunger Walk Coordinator: Rev. William Sowers and the members of the original teen planning team; A special celebration service at St. Rose of Lima on Saturday, October 10th at 7pm to bless this effort (in a historic retrospection of the first blessing held at St. Rose of Lima for the CROP Walk for the Hungry); Rev. Roger Burtner – the first CWS/CROP Regional Director of the Greater Mid-Atlantic Region who helped to start the first walk will be present at the special celebration service on Saturday; Anniversary bandannas for CROP Hunger Walk participants; Recognition of past Honorary Chair Persons and Anyone who walked in the first walk on Nov. 22, 1970; and much more!
Follow the CROP Hunger Walk at: www.yorkwalk.blogspot.com or on the facebook page “York CROP Walk for the Hungry.”
For more information contact the York County Council of Churches at: 854-9504.
• First “CROP Walk for the Hungry” in the World – November 22, 1970
• First use of the Stop Hunger Stop Sign which became the National CROP Walk Logo
• The greater York Area CROP Walk for the Hungry has raised 1,226,291.76 in the past 39 years.
• Oct. 11th is the 40th CROP Walk for the Hungry in York, PA and will start at Sovereign Bank Stadium – Registration begins at 12:30 pm.
• This is the longest continuous CROP Hunger Walk in existence.
• CROP Hunger Walks raise 16 million annual in the USA.
• Rev. William Sowers was the first ever coordinator of a CROP Walk for the Hungry and has returned to help with the 40th Walk.
• From 1997 – 2009 $121,794.71 has been given to meet local hunger needs.
• The first Teen Coordinators from 1970 are returning to help this year.
• A return to St. Rose of Lima on Saturday Oct. 10th 7pm will celebrate the first CROP service held there the night before the 1971 York CROP Hunger Walk.
• Special Guest and Dignitaries will join us at St. Rose of Lima and on the walk.
This was the first “CROP Walk for the Hungry” in the world. In the past 39 years this Walk raised 1,226,291 dollars and 76 cents (we count the pennies!). For over a billion people in our world who try to live on less than a dollar a day – every penny counts.
Special anniversary celebrations will include: A return of the first CROP Hunger Walk Coordinator: Rev. William Sowers and the members of the original teen planning team; A special celebration service at St. Rose of Lima on Saturday, October 10th at 7pm to bless this effort (in a historic retrospection of the first blessing held at St. Rose of Lima for the CROP Walk for the Hungry); Rev. Roger Burtner – the first CWS/CROP Regional Director of the Greater Mid-Atlantic Region who helped to start the first walk will be present at the special celebration service on Saturday; Anniversary bandannas for CROP Hunger Walk participants; Recognition of past Honorary Chair Persons and Anyone who walked in the first walk on Nov. 22, 1970; and much more!
Follow the CROP Hunger Walk at: www.yorkwalk.blogspot.com or on the facebook page “York CROP Walk for the Hungry.”
For more information contact the York County Council of Churches at: 854-9504.
• First “CROP Walk for the Hungry” in the World – November 22, 1970
• First use of the Stop Hunger Stop Sign which became the National CROP Walk Logo
• The greater York Area CROP Walk for the Hungry has raised 1,226,291.76 in the past 39 years.
• Oct. 11th is the 40th CROP Walk for the Hungry in York, PA and will start at Sovereign Bank Stadium – Registration begins at 12:30 pm.
• This is the longest continuous CROP Hunger Walk in existence.
• CROP Hunger Walks raise 16 million annual in the USA.
• Rev. William Sowers was the first ever coordinator of a CROP Walk for the Hungry and has returned to help with the 40th Walk.
• From 1997 – 2009 $121,794.71 has been given to meet local hunger needs.
• The first Teen Coordinators from 1970 are returning to help this year.
• A return to St. Rose of Lima on Saturday Oct. 10th 7pm will celebrate the first CROP service held there the night before the 1971 York CROP Hunger Walk.
• Special Guest and Dignitaries will join us at St. Rose of Lima and on the walk.
Children of the World Music Video
The Artist is Tim Janis - He has been a strong supporter of the work of Church World Service.
From a Letter from Roger Burtner
Very kindest greetings to you and to those dear to you!
To set the record straight, I want to emphasize that the launching and the sustaining of The CROP WALK idea was a team effort, and not a solo event!
In the summer of 1970, my first season as Mid-Atlantic (6 states & DC) CWS/CROP Director, I met George Sturgeon at my first sharing with Regional CROP Directors. George, the Director for the Dakotas, suggested that I try a novel fund-raising idea that he heard about from some friends from Canada. It was "The WALK idea". It would be a community witness to a deep concern for hungry people, and significant fund-raising to help them. Besides all that, it would be a parade! And who doesn't like a parade?
I had been a pastor in York, PA, before leaving for our six years of missionary work in Nigeria, Africa, so I first tried the WALK idea in York County. Lutheran Pastor Bill Sowers, and veteran United Methodist Youth Worker, Margaret Horn comprised the totality of the CROP Committee that September day when I offered to them this novel WALK idea. They were both good leaders and organizers. I shall always remember the powerful and immediate response Margaret (who was 70 years young!) made: "Bill, this is a good idea; I'm going to WALK; will you walk with me?"
His was the first of countless affirmations of intent to take significant steps toward helping the less fortunate members of our Human Family. I could never have guessed that a mere six weeks later there would be SIXTEEN HUNDRED WALKERS, doing the fifteen miles from the square in York to Spring Grove. I was jubilant as I went to the Annual gathering of CROP Directors in Elkhart that December. About $ 8,000.00 was then being reported from York County's first CROP WALK!
My amazement continued to grow across the winter. So did my faith in the WALK idea! By March 1971, York County's WALK had yielded $ 22,000.00. So convinced was I, that all I wanted to do was to organize more and more and more CROP WALKS! In 1971 there were 55 CROP WALKS up and down the Susquehanna River Valley, grossing more than a quarter of a million dollars. Mid-Atlantic Region had "topped the nation", becoming the highest income-producing region, a position we held for the next four years.
One wintry night, in Feb. 1972, I was inspired to write the following poem, which spoke of why walking to raise funds meant so much to me. I personally knew many, many of the Hungry Brothers & Sisters by name from our six years of walking with them in Nigeria.
We walk because "they" walk
We walk because "they" walk . . . . . we walk to span the tide,
We walk to bridge the waters that serve too well to just divide,
"Us" from "them" by a chasm deep and wide, in health, education and welfare.
Sick, illiterate, and faring n'er so well, they walk and walk.
If they can; if there's strength for the day
Upon ulcered legs, scratched, scarred and bruised,
They walk to market for a penny's worth of salt,
And home again by the well for water . . . if there be a well . . . or water hole.
They walk, and walk . . . and walk, on calloused feet, on broken calloused feet,
To bush gardens, before the scorching sun even begins his relentless course above them.
They walk to break or till thin poor soils, until the red fire ball lingers in the west.
They walk and so do we, to identify with those who walk, and walk, and walk
On burning sand, thru muddy waters, o're muddy trails, across stony pathways,
To church and school . . . if there be such, to a hospital or dispensary if one can . . .
We walk, because they walk, and walk, to seek wood for the fire, grass for the roof . . . To seek sticks and stalks and mud, to build home and granary.
To carry home the harvest, miles back from the swamp.
They walk, and so do we, to witness to the facts of love we feel,
And help we seek to give, that all might know our Brother walks, and walks . . .
To pay his taxes, to pay his last respects, to visit the sick or flee from foe . . .
He walks to flee the foe; angry nature, or angry men, with heavy heart, and heavy load. He walks, hastening in the dark, trusting that all his loved ones are all accounted for in the night! In flight! . . . and away from home . . . a refugee!
He walks to bread lines . . . if there be . . . to help the dispossessed . . . the refugee.
He walks and so do we . . . we walk to better know and help our Brother,
So that all might know . . .
We walk for the hungry.
Besides Pastor Sowers and Margaret Horn, I would like to mention that many, many dear Friends and Staff Members made our WALKS a success.
Yours, in Our Lord,
Roger Burtner
To set the record straight, I want to emphasize that the launching and the sustaining of The CROP WALK idea was a team effort, and not a solo event!
In the summer of 1970, my first season as Mid-Atlantic (6 states & DC) CWS/CROP Director, I met George Sturgeon at my first sharing with Regional CROP Directors. George, the Director for the Dakotas, suggested that I try a novel fund-raising idea that he heard about from some friends from Canada. It was "The WALK idea". It would be a community witness to a deep concern for hungry people, and significant fund-raising to help them. Besides all that, it would be a parade! And who doesn't like a parade?
I had been a pastor in York, PA, before leaving for our six years of missionary work in Nigeria, Africa, so I first tried the WALK idea in York County. Lutheran Pastor Bill Sowers, and veteran United Methodist Youth Worker, Margaret Horn comprised the totality of the CROP Committee that September day when I offered to them this novel WALK idea. They were both good leaders and organizers. I shall always remember the powerful and immediate response Margaret (who was 70 years young!) made: "Bill, this is a good idea; I'm going to WALK; will you walk with me?"
His was the first of countless affirmations of intent to take significant steps toward helping the less fortunate members of our Human Family. I could never have guessed that a mere six weeks later there would be SIXTEEN HUNDRED WALKERS, doing the fifteen miles from the square in York to Spring Grove. I was jubilant as I went to the Annual gathering of CROP Directors in Elkhart that December. About $ 8,000.00 was then being reported from York County's first CROP WALK!
My amazement continued to grow across the winter. So did my faith in the WALK idea! By March 1971, York County's WALK had yielded $ 22,000.00. So convinced was I, that all I wanted to do was to organize more and more and more CROP WALKS! In 1971 there were 55 CROP WALKS up and down the Susquehanna River Valley, grossing more than a quarter of a million dollars. Mid-Atlantic Region had "topped the nation", becoming the highest income-producing region, a position we held for the next four years.
One wintry night, in Feb. 1972, I was inspired to write the following poem, which spoke of why walking to raise funds meant so much to me. I personally knew many, many of the Hungry Brothers & Sisters by name from our six years of walking with them in Nigeria.
We walk because "they" walk
We walk because "they" walk . . . . . we walk to span the tide,
We walk to bridge the waters that serve too well to just divide,
"Us" from "them" by a chasm deep and wide, in health, education and welfare.
Sick, illiterate, and faring n'er so well, they walk and walk.
If they can; if there's strength for the day
Upon ulcered legs, scratched, scarred and bruised,
They walk to market for a penny's worth of salt,
And home again by the well for water . . . if there be a well . . . or water hole.
They walk, and walk . . . and walk, on calloused feet, on broken calloused feet,
To bush gardens, before the scorching sun even begins his relentless course above them.
They walk to break or till thin poor soils, until the red fire ball lingers in the west.
They walk and so do we, to identify with those who walk, and walk, and walk
On burning sand, thru muddy waters, o're muddy trails, across stony pathways,
To church and school . . . if there be such, to a hospital or dispensary if one can . . .
We walk, because they walk, and walk, to seek wood for the fire, grass for the roof . . . To seek sticks and stalks and mud, to build home and granary.
To carry home the harvest, miles back from the swamp.
They walk, and so do we, to witness to the facts of love we feel,
And help we seek to give, that all might know our Brother walks, and walks . . .
To pay his taxes, to pay his last respects, to visit the sick or flee from foe . . .
He walks to flee the foe; angry nature, or angry men, with heavy heart, and heavy load. He walks, hastening in the dark, trusting that all his loved ones are all accounted for in the night! In flight! . . . and away from home . . . a refugee!
He walks to bread lines . . . if there be . . . to help the dispossessed . . . the refugee.
He walks and so do we . . . we walk to better know and help our Brother,
So that all might know . . .
We walk for the hungry.
Besides Pastor Sowers and Margaret Horn, I would like to mention that many, many dear Friends and Staff Members made our WALKS a success.
Yours, in Our Lord,
Roger Burtner
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