Monday, June 7, 2010

Reflection and History of Walk the World OKC 2005-2010

"End Hunger: Walk the World OKC 2010" took place on Sunday June 6th around the perimeter of the state Capitol. 30 people walked and raised awareness of local and global childhood hunger. http://www.una-okc.org/walk2010.html


From Movies

The Oklahoma Walk joined walks around 24 times zones that last year had 360,000 people walking in 210 locations, raising enough money to provide school meals for one year to more than 20 thousand children in the world's poorest countries. The small 2010 Oklahoma walk raised $505 for the United Nations World Food Programme and $145 for the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma Food-4-Kids Program. This result does not count donations made online or by virtual Oklahoma walkers.

Thank you to the Casady YAC youth who led the walk, Joshua. Also thank you to two 9th graders, Shiva from Casady and Kolin from Rose Creek for helping set-up for the walk. Both 9th graders were also the top youth donors of the walk. Special thanks to marathon runner, Mark Bravo, for an inspirational welcoming speech and Zumba OKC, Kimberly and Jose Munoz, for a fun way to start the walkers'journey. Also thank you to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, Lisa Perry and United Nations of Greater Oklahoma, Bill Bryant for keeping track of the donations for their organizations. Special thanks to Angie Gaines from the Food Bank for helping the OKC Walk with the brochure and Peace House, Nathaniel Batchelder for helping us secure the Capitol location.

What is Walk the World?
"End Hunger: Walk the World" is an annual event to raise money and awareness for WFP’s efforts to fight child hunger and malnutrition. The Walk is a joint effort of WFP and its corporate partners, led by TNT, Unilever and DSM. Employees from these companies walk with WFP staff and beneficiaries, celebrities and VIPs as well as government and NGO partners to show their solidarity in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. The walk is a 24-hour relay with participants in each of the world's time zones walking five kilometres. It begins in Auckland, New Zealand and finishes in Samoa. http://www.wfp.org/photos/gallery/walk-world-2010
The Walk the World OKC has been a grassroots youth-led walk from its inception with a commitment to help the United Nations Millennium Goal of a childhood hunger free world by the year 2015. The Oklahoma City Walk’s community partner from its inception has been the United Nations Association of Greater Oklahoma City.

Walking the World for School Meals
The idea of a global walk against hunger originated from WFP’s corporate partner, TNT, in 2003. It was inspired by the millions of poor children around the world who walk several kilometers to school every day – often hungry and barefoot – determined to get an education and improve their future.

WFP provides free school meals to an average of 20 million children each year. Nutritious food helps students concentrate on their studies, encourages parents to send children – especially girls – to school, and helps children develop their full physical and mental potential.

Since 2006, proceeds of the Oklahoma City walk also benefited the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, Food-4-Kids Program which started in January 2003 in response to hearing a first hand account of an Oklahoma City elementary student who fainted on a Monday morning, while waiting in the school lunch line, due to lack of food over the weekend. The program provides chronically hungry children, identified by school personnel, with backpacks filled with non-perishable, kid-friendly food to eat on weekends and school holidays. The program was launched in 2003 with five Oklahoma City schools serving 180 children. Food 4 Kids has grown significantly since 2003, serving 296 elementary schools in 42 counties across central and western Oklahoma, providing backpacks to nearly 8,000 chronically hungry children each week during the 2008-2009 school year. The program continues to expand with new schools being added every semester.

Walk the World: Past Years
Since its inception in 2003, Walk the World has grown to become a global event, bringing together over 2 million participants and raising millions of US dollars to feed poor children in school.

From its inception in 2005, the Walk the World OKC has been a grassroots, youth-led walk founded by Casady freshman, Leann Farha. Leann facilitated walks from 2005-2008 raising $27,000 in collaboration with the Casady YAC, members of the Class of 2008 and matching funding from Oklahoma businesses.

In 2009, freshmen, Graham Bennett and Richard Clements in collaboration with YAC and members of the Class of 2012 raised $2,000 for WFP and the Food Bank. This year, the walk aimed to continue the Casady YAC commitment to helping the UN Millennium Goal of ending childhood hunger by the year 2015.

Freshman, Shiva, worked behind the scenes facilitating the Walk the World 2010 under the leadership of YAC Senior Chair Joshua Ou. The goal of the walk was to feed at least 3 children for a year, at $50 per child, and get 10 members of the Casady community to walk. The goal was small because the Casady community just finished raising $20,000 to provide a well for clean drinking water for a village in Ethiopia through Charity Water.

The 2010 Walk the World OKC reached out to the Oklahoma City community and the United Nations Association of Greater Oklahoma participated in collaboration with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, Respect Diversity Foundation, the Peace House, Mercy School, Heritage Hall and Casady Alumni Associations, Putnam City North CAST and a few Rose Creek residents.

DONATIONS FOR WFP WALK THE WORLD 2010
World Food Program: DONATING BY CHECK, payable to the UN World Food Programme and send to: UN World Food Programme, Private Sector Fundraising
Via Cesare Giulio Viola 68/70
Parco dei Medici
00148 Rome, Italy(...This requires a 98 cent postage stamp)

OR

Friends of the World Food ProgramDonate via Cash, Check or Money Order. Make checks payable to Friends of WFP. Checks can be mailed to the following address: Friends of WFP
Attn: Development Department
1819 L St. NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036

Online Donations ... https://walktheworld.wfp.org/donate/donate

DONATIONS REPORT FOR WFP BY MR. BRYANT

The total of contributions to the World Food Program, as June 14, 2010: $505.

Checks ... 205 + $100 from Casady Alumni Association

Cash ... 175

Online Donation ... 25

Total Contribution to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma reported by Miss Lisa Perry: $145 in cash

News from World Food Program USA:
World Food Program USA (WFP USA). There will be no change in management or mission, and we will continue to provide the same great support for the lifesaving work of WFP as we always have. But now our name even more directly reflects what we as an organization do: We work within the US to support the mission and further the goals of WFP.

In addition to our name change, we’ve launched a new and improved website: wfpusa.org. The site, besides having a new look and feel, also offers a number of exciting tools for individuals like you to take the fight against hunger to a whole new level. Their e-mail is info@wfpusa.org

Walk the World Celebration 2010, Ice Cream Social:
Bill, Zena and her two children, Joan, Carmen, Lisa and a former Casady student friend of Lisa's attended the Father's Day ice cream social. We did not take pictures because everyone was engaged in great informal conversations and ice cream. We congratulated Joan for winning the YWCA award, at the Purple Sash Gala the evening before. We also sung H-B day to Lisa!!!

We discussed:

1. Expand partnerships to as many people as are willing to organize, walk, and fundraise. The Council of Churches is interested in becoming a partner. Bill will provide the necessary information. He will also talk to his organization's board.

2. The United Nations Association of Greater Oklahoma is considering taking the main leadership role of Walk the World 2011. The website is operational and people can register easily and do online contributions easily. Carmen Clay will still play a major role in partnership with Casady Service-Learning. We will see what type of commitment the Casady YAC will want to provide once the school year starts. The week of the US walk is the week before finals and the worldwide walk is on Memorial Day next year.

3. Food Bank, Mercy School, Respect Diversity Foundation and Casady Service-Learning are on board. We hope Casady YAC Youth will also be on board as well as teens and children from other schools like Deer Creek and Mercy. We will not know this until school starts in September. Please let me know if your organization will like to participate next year as an organizing organization and what role you wish to play within the organization of the walk.

4.Final Walk the World 2010 results: 30 walkers raised $505 for WFP and $245 ($100 from Susie being delivered to Food Bank representative) for the Food-4-Kids Program. Our Total $ raised: $750.

5. For your consideration here is my propose goal for next year's walk: Minimum goal for Walk the World OKC 2011, 100 times what we did in 2010 in walkers for sure. We will attempt to raise as much money as we can.

6. The date for Walk the World 2011 is a. Global Walk: Memorial Day, May 29, 2011
b. US Walk: May 22,2011 one week ahead of the Global walk. This date will be an impossible date for Casady students because it is the weekend when they are studying for finals. Exams begin the 24th.

7. Bill pinpointed that he observed that people set the date of the walk at a convenient time for their area. Casady YAC has kept the day of the walk on the day of the global walk, even when the walk was on Mother's Day. Please send me your thoughts about the best date for Walk the World 2011 and possibilities of location. We know we can have the Capitol for free with at least a month ahead reservation.

8. The social ended at 4:00 p.m. We had a great time talking and semi-planning.

Looking forward to the feedback from the ones who attended and to the ideas and commitment to WtW2011. Thank you for the opportunity to serve a great cause in partnership with amazing people

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