i this is our only grego from senior perspective tonight i have a very interesting program which i think you might be interested in seeing and my very special guests tonight are rebecca bono and bill merger and w this is all about is the cross walk ok i have a few questions here that you might like to answer so that we will know a little bit more about the crop walk rebecca what is the history of crop and i wouldn't stand for this is actually the fiftieth anniversary of crops and crops began in one nine hundred forty seven in the aftermath of world war two when the midwestern farmers and really all of the united states witnessed the famines in europe in asia that were in part the result of world war two and in part and part of the natural disaster that was occurring in europe in asia the farmers in the united states wanted to respond to that so they began by organizing grain trains filled with grain throughout the  midwest and the trains would start in one community and the farmers would fill the cars with grain and the trains would go to the next community and the farmers would fill more cars with grain and that a dent eventually went to europe and asia to aid the victims there that was an inner church effort and eventually thirty three denominations and faith groups became a part of church world service and crop and now crop walks crop originally then stood for christian rural overseas program but now we well crop the crop walkmen in peter's township for a number of years and it's been well supported in this township we've had up to one hundred ninety people walk at one time and we expect to get more people out there this year ok yeah we really last year there were three thousand crossroads even then i would say two and three hundred thousand people walked and three million people participated either by sponsoring walkers or by walking themselves so and then in pennsylvania there are two hundred forty croc walks in pennsylvania it's the second largest state in the united states for a number of crosswalks only behind michigan and we plan to change that this year i know i heard i was talking to somebody i forget who is a friend of mine but she was from out west somewhere and she said they closed the whole town down and everybody walked and when tippi wonderful if we could do that here in peter's and that it would be great what you do the hours wonderful the the number the history that you have in the amount of money that you raise every year really makes a significant difference in the lives of people not only here in peter's township but in the seventy countries where church world service working how much money usually raised at these crop walks nationally about twenty two million dollars is raised in crop walks in pennsylvania it's about a little over two million between two million and two and a half million dollars that's raised annually in crop walks and as when that money's raised a portion of that money comes back to the local community where the money is is collected so that in peter's township twenty five percent of whatever xrays come back he comes back here and goes directly to aid people who need to be fed in this community the remaining percentage goes to church well services efforts across the globe as i said when we came in a wheelchair which is really fantastic to have some when i'll be great we take everything and everybody peters township crosswalk is about five miles long and it's if i'm correct and it's on a really nice trail so it very very available for families and how many people lasted twenty one it's amazing just about everybody i was just talking to my grandmother the other day who is eighty four now so she was sixty four about sixty four sixty five then and she made and any other and some types of events in the community did anybody well i think more and more over the last few years our communities have a number of walk a thon type of vans or  thongs and although crop for one of the original walking events we've been walking for well over twenty five years now it seems it may appear that we're kind of one of the many but crop locks are unique in a number of ways one of the way for me that they're most unique is their faith based they're organized in our churches and in our synagogues and in our places of worship primarily and they bring people and unite people across space lines in ways that very few events do the cross walk in monroeville last year had the jewish community walk the christian community walk the muslim community walk in the behind community walk together there are very few events in our communities where we can unite with each crosswalk i think is unique is that they're completely volunteer organized there are not paid staff people who who who organize community crop walks community crosswalks are organized by you by people from churches in the community who come together and want to do this who really see a need to to benefit those who are hungry across the globe and then put their time and energy where where that need is to fill that need to really step in and walk to benefit others  i'd like something clarified about this and it's not only food that they get i mean they get equipment and stuff to teach them how to raise crops and that's true is it true that's true church world service works primarily areas the first area where money that's raised in a crosswalk goes is to the area of development and that's what you're talking of economic development so it's helping people help themselves so sometimes it is giving someone a basket of food but it's also giving people packets of seeds to plant and farm or giving people farming tools so that they can begin to farm or helping people start a small business like a chicken farm with maybe five or ten chickens that in the end provide nutrition for them extra extra eggs to take to the market and sell and reinvest in their own little economic enterprise so that economic security can be had into the future and not just food for today the other area where church world service works and money from acropolis goes is into the area of disaster relief and we do that all over the globe in the united states that was really evidence this spring in the floods in the midwest where church will service was able to go in because of your work here in peter only help overseas we help communities here too when the good sense of all church world service funds are used within the united states into aboriginal enough and food aid and development projects and the third area where your money goes when you walk in a crosswalk is into the area of refugee assistance and resettlement in rwanda the millions of refugees that have been away from their homes for a couple of years now are returning home ninety percent of those returning refugees the households ninety percent of the households are female headed so you can imagine what that does to a community where ninety percent of the households are female headed what that does the economy what that does to the social structure the church world service and you be there helping those women find ways to sustain themselves economically so that their children and the next generation can have a better outlook in the future i think gives them a little more of a perspective to go on and to better themselves than this so don't you think that with it does help them in that way it does it provides hope it provides everybody to yes that that tomorrow can be a little more secure is the fight against hunger making any headway can either of you there are three there are less hungry people in the world today than there were last year or than there were the year before or the year before and that's  direct result of communities like peter township doing things like crop walks gathering together looking beyond the walls of their own community and benefiting people across the globe we are making progress in the fight against  but i think we've got to continue to do that we can never go out of our vigilance because hunger is always going to be there it's going to be multiple phases going to multiple people and we have to take the time to make the effort to support those when i think we forget that there's hunger in our own communities to very true that's proper comes in handy too with your food pantries and in helping with the meals on wheels in it so so we are helping with right here at home that's committed there is so much need in our own country both in the area of disaster which we talked about and in the area hungry what this church world service do to address these concerns and needs i think you sort of touched on  little bit so if you could go into it a little further i think that particularly right now we have an inclination to tourney and then to look at ourselves and to say well we need so much with the policy cats in washington and the recent welfare check changes in the welfare law it's really on our mind what our own communities need so i'm hearing the question more and more well you know it's one thing to benefit people across the world but we need help  so it's good for us to remember that church world service does use fifty percent of its resources to benefit the hungry in the united states to benefit disaster victims within the boundaries of the united states but martin luther king had martin luther king jr had a great perspective on life and one of the things he said was he realized that he couldn't even get out of his front door in the morning without already touching people across the globe from the fabric in the suit he put on his back to the china in the serial way he did bore in the bowl he ate his cereal out of to the ingredients in the cologne that he splashed on his neck before he walked out of the front door he was connected to the whole globe and i think we need to remember that because that's the truth of our life yes we need to take care of people here but we are so connected to people all over the globe that we don't stand alone and we don't follow alone and we're not going to walk into the future alone that we need to keep that picture of the whole globe in mind you know it's a very interesting point i mean you know you don't think about how you are connected through all the different parts of the world really  costs low our administrative costs in any given year run from fifteen to eighteen percent so that includes all churchward service employee salaries all the costs of having events like crop walks and the cost of producing educational materials about hunger and poverty and global justice issues that's a that's for this type for the type of fundraising that we do in the work that we do together that's a terrific percent percentage and we can do that because of the i can i can we all participate in this well there's a there's a couple of things that people can do i know at trinity united methodist church we we've got the hearts and souls and hearts are that are going to help fund those that are going to be walking and we've got a number of those and we've got the souls that are going to be out there doing the walking so those are the kind of things that you can do you can bake cookies for people that are going to be out there you can lend your support and i think it will be a great time when he sees something else we would like to inject him here is something you know well one of the reasons i'm going to crop walk is because irma will be again it will be it will start off at the peters creek presbyterian church and the q and the cross walk will go down the arrowhead trail it's all downhill on the way so it's not too bad and you get all the way to the hiking bike and then it's pretty flat all the way think you had an eight hundred number or something if anybody was interested in any further information yes if anyone wants more information about the peters township crosswalk or about church world service one eight eight eight c ws crop and i'll be glad to ask answer your questions or point you in the right direction and i want to thank both of you for your involvement in irma for your years of involvement with the peter townsend walk and end up in the lives you have touched through your work thank you thank you yes and i do want to thank both my guests rebecca and bill and thank you all so very much and rebecca thank you so much for all your help and we hope that this will be a very successful walk away it will be it will be longer i've heard about it but with the people i know be willing to sponsor me we like to participate but do we have time for that difference my congregation my coworkers my neighbors my family were more than willing to support my wife it was easy all i had to do was ask our whole family participates it's an opportunity for us to get together and not only their laughter for us to become closer with our community our church members and our global community to church world service crop walks i'm not just responding the crisis we're strengthening people for the challenges they'll face throughout their lives by helping them help themselves mean something that means we're making a real problems and you help them help themselves one lifetime that's what church world service is all about for some fifty years people cross the united states has given him time and resources and  together with our partners in the local agencies that receive the twenty five percent of the funds so that we're helping people right here at home and then thirdly we're working with our colleague agencies in more than seventy countries worldwide helping to make a difference in their lives but mainly they prioritize aware and then we work side by side with them helping to make a difference  project a bill to be maintained by the community because before doing anything it is the eldest it is the community opinion because it is the community leaders who decides what projects they can i sure hope some this will help at home to a large percentage of crop walk fons actually do assist people in the united states through local hunger fighting agencies but the very fact that each day we witness suffering from around the world is evidence that our home extends par beyond our shores it is virtually impossible to be unaware of the circumstances our neighbors space and rockers it is impossible to stand idly by church people think about it food and water and shelter our basic human needs deprive people of these three things and you put them in a position of desperation how much power do desperate people have to overcome their circumstances but reach out a hand simply give a person the tools to help themselves ever here and you change everything and it's amazing to see the strength and courage and wisdom of people who want seemed utterly helpless once they're given hope and people that are nourished are in a position to learn to grow to cure for themselves and their famil others so the benefits go on and on maybe someday we'll be able to say that we've ended alter the fact is the proper rock is part of the solution resources already exist for people to grow enough food to feed them selves to bring fresh clean water to everyone virtually everywhere and to provide safe shelter in other words it's not ability that lacking it is unity by walking together by working together people can make a difference people in more than seventy countries each year local congregations community groups schools and businesses come together in towns cities and rural areas around the united states from benton harbor michigan to bismarck north dakota from carlisle pennsylvania to carlsbad california to do what they can to help their neighbors and that one hundred twenty million dollars was raised one community at a  time this is my seventh year and walking acts that call it rolling i walk as an inspiration i enjoy doing it it gives me the chance to get out and meet more people gives me the benefit to ask other people to do the help of of god and it's for a good cause i walk for crops because it's a way of showing other people in the community there that we care for the hunger not only in our community but all over the world when i walk because i really feel it does make a difference if you'll pardon the pun it's good for the soul as so you will too not only does the s o l e that we have to walk on i really feel want to done that i've connected god has brought us together as a father in this community is different because of that each one of these particular buttons up here i don't know if you can get it to all of them they represent a year that i've walked and some of the years there may be a little so rusty you know from some of the rain i was on but it's been the past fifteen years and i've seen this particular community grow that way and it's connectedness i really feel good about the work being done everyone i know would support my participation and i know it room make a difference we're going to do it i want  crop walks and walkers have been putting a lot of soul into the fight against hunger since one nine hundred sixty nine but there are still steps we need to take together i would like to thank my guests bill moser and rebecca ball for their information regarding this year's crop walk don't forget the date sunday october nineteenth one fifteen at peter's creek united presbyterian church this is a mcgregor for senior perspective