Organizers and volunteers in Gravenhurst are gearing up for a walk in the cold in support of reducing area poverty and homelessness.
Beth Houston (below), Chair of Gravenhurst Against Poverty (GAP) and Co-chair of the Gravenhurst Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) Walk, explains that the annual CNOY event is the major fundraiser for GAP.
She says last year’s walk raised $177,000, which is about a third of the organization’s annual operating budget.
“Without this walk, we wouldn’t have the money to feed the amount of people that we feed now,” says Houston, who describes a regular week at GAP:
Audio PlayerFor those who don’t know, GAP is located at 290 Muskoka Road North in Gravenhurst in the basement of Trinity United Church.
Overall, the organization currently delivers dinners to about 300 households in Gravenhurst regularly while about 20 households pick up food items. GAP runs many food programs currently, which includes a young adult program on Fridays. They also hope to start a learn-to-cook-on-a-budget class soon – this is based upon a survey of residents they conducted recently where they found the need for this type of education is needed.
To help keep these services going, the fundraising goal of this year’s walk which happens on February 22nd is $185,000.
Houston says while some people don’t like the idea of asking for money, she contrasts that with a situation where you have to ask for food to feed your kids. In this light, she suggests that asking for money from the community isn’t such a hard request.
The easiest way to donate to this year’s walk is to go gravenhurstagainstpoverty.com and hit the donation button for CNOY. There you can either sign up to walk, volunteer or become a corporate sponsor – some people are walking virtually too which is another great option.
One thing that is different with the walk this year is the after-party will be held inside at Boston Pizza.
All pizza companies in town are still providing pizza towards the effort too. There will also be live entertainment, fire pits and hot chocolate at the Muskoka Wharf where everything kicks off on the 22nd. Registration starts at 4 pm that day and the walk begins at 5 pm.
The two walk routes are the same as in other years – One is 2k which takes walkers to the Sawdust City turnaround where there will be snacks and drinks, while the 5k route travels to a turnaround at Mr. Sub where there will also be snacks and drinks.
Houston emphasizes that the need is great this year.
GAP has almost 300 volunteers who are helping almost 1000 people in the community regularly.
More and more, Houston says they are also seeing people who are working full-time but who can’t put food on the table:
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