By Staff
Participants in Sunday's annual Cass County CROP Walk symbolically traveled up to two miles "in someone else's shoes" to benefit hunger relief efforts at home and abroad.
Lois Hall announced that $7,864.39 had been raised, with more to come, as walkers filed out of the Federated Church sanctuary and ambled down Center Street on a sunny, breezy afternoon to tackle one of three routes of varying distances.
The longest loop took two-milers through town, north on Front Street to Prairie Ronde, west on Prairie Ronde to Lowe, where a rest stop awaited at First United Methodist Church, then back downtown along Main Street, past Central, to Division.
Organizers set a goal of involving 150 walkers to raise $15,000 to be shared by Church World Service, Salvation Army/CURE, the Feed My Sheep food pantry at First Christian Church and Helping Hands of Cass County.
Various churches congregated before the walk for prayer and to clap along to uplifting gospel music as a reminder "of what we're doing this for," according to Federated Pastor Jeff Frantz, hoping they felt "sufficiently pumped up to walk."
Fortunately, when dog-like panting could be heard during the walk, it was coming from real canines who also joined the journey.