DATE: Sunday, September 21, 1997            TAG: 9709190350

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 05   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   44 lines

REGISTRATION BEGINS TODAY FOR ANNUAL CROP WALK BENEFIT

The annual CROP Walk, an effort to raise funds to fight hunger locally, nationally and abroad, will take place Oct. 19 at Lakeside Park in Chesapeake's South Norfolk section.

Participating churches, clubs and service organizations can pick up their sponsor envelopes and walk materials at 7:30 p.m. today and again on Tuesday at the Apostles Lutheran Church, 370 Johnstown Road in Chesapeake.

When the organization started more than 50 years ago, it was called the Christian Rural Oversees Program, or CROP. Now the acronym just identifies hunger education and fund-raising events sponsored by the Church World Service, an international relief, development and refugee resettlement agency made up of Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox denominations.

Last year 124 participants helped raise a total of $6,148. Of that amount, 25 percent or $1,537.18 came back to the local Community Resource Network, which distributed the money to food closets in Great Bridge, to the Chesapeake Avenue United Methodist Church and to the Chesapeake Human Resource Center, said David M. Pritchard, Chesapeake CROP Walk Coordinator. The rest of the raised funds were used by the Church World Service for national and international food assistance.

The groups who participated in last year's walk are:

The Apostles Lutheran Church, Centerville Chapel A.M.E. Church, the Community United Methodist Church, the Chesapeake Avenue United Methodist Church, the Deep Creek United Methodist Church, the Fentress Civic League, the First Presbyterian Church of South Norfolk, the Great Bridge Presbyterian Church, the Mount Pleasant Mennonite Church, the New Weeping Mary Church, the Oak Grove United Methodist Church, the Portlock United Methodist Church, Prince of Peace Catholic Church and the Providence United Church of Christ.

Registration for the 10K (6.2 mile) walk takes place at 1:20 p.m. The actual walk will begin at 2 p.m.

Churches and other participating groups and individuals are asked to seek pledge money for a completed walk, Pritchard said. These funds should then be turned over to each group's coordinator who can collect the money a month after the walk for collection by the walk committee. MEMO: For more information about the walk or the Church World Service,

contact Pritchard at 436-0305.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu