A Weekend of Walks Bringing Benefit to All in Southington

Temperatures are expected to climb to near 70 over the weekend with plenty of sunshine and that bodes well for the Second Annual Apple Valley “Walk like MADD” and inaugural “Walk for Hunger” hosted by Southington Bread for Life as the two groups look to raise funds and awareness in the community.

The weekend programs will each take place on separate days, with Mothers Against Drunk Driving hosting their event on Saturday and members of Bread for Life coming out to fight hunger with a special program on Sunday. Both are open to the public, although registration is required.

“This is the first time we have hosted our own walk. In the past we’ve always been part of the Walk for Hunger in Hartford,” said Bread for Life executive director Eldon Hafford. “Being our first event, we are hoping to get a few hundred people to come out and hopefully it’s an event we will be able to build upon year after year.”

The goal of the program is to raise awareness regarding those who are struggling to feed their families in the community and raise money to support Southington Bread for Life efforts in town.

Over the past year, Bread for Life served more than 35,000 meals in Southington alone, including around 250 meals per week for seniors and another 125 meals for the homeless. The goal, Hafford said, is the organization’s motto “that no one may go hungry.”

The event will run on Sunday, April 28, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. with the walk kicking off at 2 p.m. Walkers will be able to choose either one mile or three mile walks and along the linear trail. The walk begins at the Southington-Cheshire YMCA and will include an after party at the location as well.

For more information or to fill out a registration form, visit www.southingtonbreadforlife.com or see the complete event listing on Southington Patch.

But before walkers look to end hunger on Sunday, they are first invited to “Walk like MADD” in honor of DUI victim Michael Albert on Saturday.

MADD will host it’s second annual program on April 27, with the events kicking off at the Southington Town Green on Main Street starting with registration at 8:30 a.m. and opening ceremonies at 9:30 p.m. Proceeds will go to helping create legislation and address drunk driving to help save lives.

MADD estimates that since 1980, the organization has saved nearly 3000,000 lives from drunk driving and the MADD victim support program currently serves one person every eight minutes.

But unfortunately, there are still numerous victims of drunk driving accidents.

“We honor all victims,” Theresa Barnett, co-chair of the walk, told the Record-Journal this week. “Every year we choose one victim as a point of attention.”

This year, the group in honoring Albert, who was killed on July 28, 1986, in an accident involving a drunk driver. He was just 26-years-old.

For more information of the walk or to register, visit the MADD website at www.walklikemadd.org or see the listing on Southington Patch.

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