The Road Goes Ever On - A Blog About Walking And Doing Good

aseanchai and I have been making fairly steady progress in our walking quest, despite things like family matters, crazy work schedules and the occasional thunderstorm. We've already completed the 145 mile Shire challenge and are working our way through the Fellowship challenge. (For those keeping track, we've walked about 271 miles so far.) Fortunately we appear to be ahead of schedule - I say fortunately because it looks like we won't be going anywhere over the next few days. We're expecting crushing and potentially dangerous heat over the next few days; while we're dedicated to the cause, we're also realistic. There's no need for us to endure temperatures as high as 96 degrees. We aren't used to that sort of heat in general, and we definitely haven't done any sort of heat endurance training. Better for us to stay inside, do some (DDP) Yoga and help our our neighbors as needed.

I've been thinking about our neighbors a lot lately, especially since school is out now. Too many kids in the US are "food insecure," and too many of them will spend the summer hungry because school is out. I don't know how many kids in our area may be in this situation, but I'm sure they're out there. And that's not to mention seniors or lower income individuals that are facing dire choices due to inflation and supply chain issues. aseanchai and I do what we can directly by donating to our local Little Free Pantries, but the need is vast. When it comes to Team Westmarch, economies of scale work in our favor. Each dollar that gets donated to our fundraiser becomes four meals at Akron Canton Regional Foodbank. That means that $1,000 becomes 4,000 meals for people in eight Ohio counties, far more than we would ever be able to do on our own. There's a certain kind of magic at work there, and it's wonderful.

Unfortunately, it looks like our fundraising efforts have completely stalled. We've raised $245 (980 meals), but we haven't seen any movement on the fundraiser for several weeks. I feel responsible for this; I haven't been updating longwalks as often as I should, and I haven't been as relentlessly self-promoting as I probably should be on social media. I'll try to improve on these things. In the meantime, please feel free to share longwalks here on Dreamwidth and on social media. If you have the means, consider donating to Team Westmarch - even $1 helps. If nothing else, see what you can do to help people in your community access food they need. I've added some resources below. Share them far and wide and encourage others to spread the information. You could help keep a kid fed this summer.

Food Rescue Hero
Food Rescue US
Find Meals for Kids When Schools Are Closed
FindHelp.org
NoKidHungry.org

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - J.R.R. Tolkien

For most of us, food is something we don't think about until we don't have it.

Actually, let me revise that. Many people think about food, and think about it often. We try to decide what we want for breakfast. We ponder picking up something for lunch. We wonder if we should check out that new restaurant for dinner, or if we should use all those ingredients we have in our fridge before they go bad. We throw out old food from the back of cabinets, we agonize about what to make for special occasions, and we make impulse buys at the grocery store because of nostalgia or curiosity or just plain boredom.

But how many of us think about not having food? Not with the resigned sigh of, "There's nothing in the house," meaning that you're tired of leftovers or don't want to cook. Rather, I refer to the worry someone feels about going home to an empty fridge or bare shelves. It would be bad enough if you lived alone, but what if you had children, or elderly parents, or both? What if your grocery store was the next town or county over? While some of us my grumble about going to a specialty store for a hard-to-find ingredient, other people may need to make "special trips" just to access the basics.

It shouldn't be this way, but it is. A lot of people, both rural and urban, have to scramble for food because they live in food deserts or can't afford to buy what they need. The need is vast and the causes are complicated. But that doesn't mean we can't help.

One of the reasons Team Westmarch decided to support the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank is because it directly serves our community, which means our neighbors can get the food they need to stay healthy. But more broadly, ACRF supports eight Ohio counties and provides millions of meals to families who wouldn't otherwise be able to eat. It's a happy coincidence that hobbits are known for their love of food, because our walking challenge started in The Shire. By starting our donation drive with a food bank, we hope to ensure that one of life's simplest pleasures - and one most of us take for granted - can be enjoyed by everyone in our region.

We'd like to raise $1,000 for ACRF. Ideally, we'd like to raise $1,000 for nine charities, including causes like One Tree Planted, RIP Medical Debt, Team Rubicon and Shelterbox. However, we've decided not to "unlock" those charities until we reach our current goal. Our reasoning is that we'd rather succeed in raising $1,000 for one charity than fail to raise $100 for all nine. In saying that, we need your help. Both aseanchai  and I have donated money to the cause, but we haven't had much support beyond that (save a $25 donation from a friend). We both know that many people can't afford to donate money right now, and that's okay. Even just sharing this post or our fundraiser page can help us reach more people and (hopefully) bring in the donations we need to help our neighbors. No donation is too small - every dollar donated to ACRF translates into four meals, and those four meals can make a big difference to people in need.

We may be the ones who are doing all of the walking, but we can't reach our destination without you. aseanchai  and I have walked 55 miles so far; we've donated $125 ourselves and received a $25 donation today. We can't wait to see how much further we can go with your help.

The weather has not been terribly conducive to outdoor activity. Yet somehow, improbably, we are actually far ahead on our first part of the Lord of the Rings Conqueror challenge! aseanchai and I currently have our apps set to catalog all of our daily steps, rather than specific exercise. While part of me worries that this is cheating, I also know that life sometimes intervenes in even the best laid plans. Rather than feeling guilty about those days when I cannot get a dedicated walk in due to weather or family concerns, I can remind myself that in this particular case, every step really does count.

The Conqueror app allows you to create a fellowship (team) so you can walk virtually with friends and cut down on the amount of walking you need to do. (The distance is split between participants.) Because it's adding up the total steps for both of us, the app says that we're about 18 miles ahead of the pace we'd originally set. That's absolutely wild! I'd originally assumed it would take us about 18 months to complete the entire 1,8020 mile challenge, but I think I vastly underestimated us. That's no bad thing. If you end up signing up for the challenge yourself and are looking for a team to join, let us know. We'd love to have more companions on our journey. We'd also love to have people join Team Westmarch, where we're trying to raise $1,000 for the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank.

And now, it's time to answer one of the questions I'm sure you have.

( Namely, why on earth I created a Dreamwidth journal rather than a website. )

For those who are interested in our fundraising progress...well, there's not much to report there. It's been a busy week, and I haven't had a chance to let friends and family know about our endeavor. If you're in a position to help Team Westmarch, please consider donating via our page. Remember, every dollar provides four meals for people in need! And if you can't donate, please consider sharing longwalks and the Team Westmarch donation page with your friends, your family and your communities - virtual or otherwise. We can all come together and make the world a bit better than it is now. And that, my friends, is beautiful.