Photos by Kristin Fankhauser
In observance of Arizona’s Child Abuse Awareness month, Hope & A Future hosted its second annual Strike Out Child Abuse Walk at Civic Space Park Saturday afternoon.
The walk raised about $16,000 to fund summer camps and life skills programs for children involved with Hope & A Future, a Phoenix-based nonprofit Christian organization for abused and neglected children, co-founder Kelli Freeman said.
About 200 participants from across the Valley registered for the event.
GlobalMedia sponsored the walk and underwrote all costs of the event, which allowed 100 percent of proceeds from participants to go directly to the kids, Freeman said.
Each participant paid exactly $29.11 to register for the walk. This amount was specifically chosen to correspond with the Bible verse Jeremiah 29:11 that the organization was named after, which states: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
Participants received an event t-shirt, ticket to the Diamondbacks game, hot dog, and soda.
Volunteers set up a makeshift starting line near the light rail stop at Van Buren Street and Central Avenue. Participants lined up around 3:45 p.m. for the leisurely one-mile walk to Chase Field, where they then watched the Arizona Diamondbacks play the Cincinnati Reds.
Raffle tickets were also sold to raise money throughout the event. Prizes included a night at Phoenix’s Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel, tickets to the Herberger Theater, and a scrapbook.
MidFirst Bank brought a van with a coin counting device where participants could make donations, which MidFirst matched penny-for-penny for donations up to $1,000.
Hope & A Future partnered with Royal Family Kids’ Camp, a summer camp for foster children, to put the event together. RFKC Director Donnie Garver was one of the many volunteers at the walk.
“Our purpose is just to allow the kids an opportunity to feel safe and to create positive memories for them,” Garver said.
Garver said the camp gives the kids a sense of family that they would not have otherwise and the walk is a chance to raise both awareness for the cause, as well as recruit volunteers.
About one-fourth of the proceeds made from the walk will go to RFKC.
“Some of these kids don’t feel like anybody loves them — we’re able to show them love and compassion and support,” Freeman said of both her organization and RFKC.
Phoenix resident Kim Huntsinger was a participant at the walk. She said she has volunteered with Hope & A Future for about five months.
Having hosted foster children 25 years ago, Huntsinger said she has a personal connection to the cause.
“I think it’s really important to bring attention not only to abused kids, but also to all children in the foster-care system,” Huntsinger said.
Freeman said community support for the event was “great this year” and that she hopes people will continue to support the cause.
“There’s over 10,000 children in the foster-care system and a lot of them are looking for permanent homes. On average a child can move up to three times a year…we wanted to be able to provide them hope,” Freeman said. “Even if it’s just going to a summer camp.”
Contact the reporter at jessica.mayer@asu.edu
