CROP walk for hunger

We found out about the CROP (Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty) walk for hunger in Ventura, CA from a girl who posted it on the couchsurfing website.  Since we were the ones who started the volunteer thread, and we didn’t have any plans for that Sunday, we felt it was our duty to go.  However, we didn’t find out about it until about a week before and didn’t feel that was a sufficient amount of time to get a substantial amount of sponsors (plus we don’t like asking people for money anyway).  But the good news was that, when checking out their website, it turns out they needed volunteers to do other things such as set-up.  Sweet!  We can still feel like we’re helping but don’t have to ask people for money, sounds good to me.

And so we drove 70 miles to volunteer.  It was worth it though, turns out we were the only non-family, non-church related people there to help (most helpers being adolescent grandkids of the organizers).  We helped set-up and then were given a lunch break so we cruised down Main Street.  A very cute area, with beach on one side and mountains on the other.  I would enjoy living there if it weren’t so far from everything.  Anyway, when we got back everything was kind of done… but then we were asked if we wanted to be a “big help” and do the dreaded job of walking behind all the walkers and taking down the directional signs.  Despite not being dressed appropriately to do a 10K walk, how could we say no?  Two healthy 20-somethings, and if we didn’t do it the task would be left to someone at least twice our age.  So we agreed and got to see even more of Ventura, including a surfing tournament as we strolled along the beach.

The weather was beautiful and we had a good time.  The organizers were super appreciative, though they couldn’t understand why we had driven all the way up from Pasadena to help them.  Honestly, we couldn’t really give them an answer.  In the future we hope to find volunteer opportunities a little closer to home, but it was fun to be part of this one event which raised a lot more money than they had anticipated.  Plus, we both got a slight tan!