Feeling the cold for a cause

Local News

Discussion

February 7, 2013

Feeling the cold for a cause

Annual Walk a Mile in my Shoes event Saturday.

By Lindsay Eckert Tribune staff writer The Kokomo Tribune Thu Feb 07, 2013, 11:04 PM EST

It’s a frigid feeling that sends chills to your core if you’re forced to walk outside during an Indiana winter. But for some people, it’s a way of life and a permanent chill sets in as their struggle to stay warm and walk to work and the grocery.

Sally Ripley, Kokomo Rescue Mission director of development, said the annual walk — now in its 12th year — started small and grew to an event she is thankful to see.

“A group of people came up with the thought of walking outside in the winter and what it’d be like to either not have a place to stay or not have transportation,” Ripley said. “They picked winter so people would have the understanding of what the extremes would be like, I could’ve never envisioned it’d get to place where it is right now for Kokomo Rescue Mission and Open Arms Shelter.”

Ripley said the event’s growth has been a bonus, but she said its families wanting to truly understand — not just participate — the challenges and chilling difficulties people face in their daily lives is what makes her most proud of the event.

“It’s amazing to watch people and see how excited they are to participate in the event,” Ripley said. “It’s my second year in the event, so it’s kind of a new thing for me but last year we had a fairly mild winter and people were thinking we were going to have a warmer weather day for the event. It ended up being cold and people were like good this is how it’s supposed to be. People want to experience that and they are very blessed and see how very easy it is to take warmth for granted. It’s a great human interest we all share.”

Ripley said this year’s event is striving to reach the goal of raising $120,000, but Ripley said seeing the unity among the community that is the best way to raise spirits.

“The best part of it is seeing people enjoy the event and get a group of friends together,” Ripley said. “Cousins and families walk together do some good, there’s camaraderie and a lot of people — once they walk the first time or two — start personalizing and asking themselves, ‘What if it was me and I did not have a place to stay or I had to walk everywhere?” More than anything, it’s about finding out that warmth is a blessing and secondary is helping raise money for the community.”

For more on this story and other local news, subscribe to The Kokomo Tribune eEdition, or our print edition.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Local News

“We’re all in it together”
Peru Police Chief Jonie Kennedy recently joined another elite group after she was appointed Peru police chief in April.
Out of the nearly 450 municipal police departments in the state, she’s now just one of around seven female chiefs.

May 20, 2013 1 Photo
Legislature had little taste for alcohol bills
When it comes to alcohol, the 2013 legislative session may be marked more by what it didn’t do to boost booze sales than what it did.
Repeating recent history, the General Assembly turned away efforts to expand Sunday alcohol sales and allow gas stations and convenience stores to sell cold beer – the latter of which has prompted a lawsuit.

May 20, 2013
Summer Place Car Show wheels in for its 11th year
It started with a broken down car on U.S. 31. Decades later, 500-plus cars roll in and rewind time for the 11th Annual Summer Place Car Show.
Jim Richardson founded the event as a way to raise money for his family’s foundation, A Home for Every Child. The foundation, which raises money to help children in need of adoption, is one that’s close to Richardson’s heart just as his love for the 1950s is close to his roots.

May 20, 2013
New purpose for St. Joseph Center
For 42 years, Chris Cleveland has had a special relationship with his developmentally disabled brother, Bally. He created the Bally Foundation last year to connect people with special needs and their caregivers to services and resources within 75 miles of Indianapolis. Now Cleveland wants to create a new resource, a community for families caring for special needs members.

May 20, 2013
Question Time: Dinner for four
We received several dozen very interesting responses Friday when we asked our readers to answer the following question: “If you could have dinner with any three people living or otherwise who would it be and why?” As a result, a few us here at the Kokomo Tribune decided to give it a try as well.

May 19, 2013
Bullying reporting now required
Oliver Jackson — known in the music world as DjBigO317 — remembers being bullied by the kids on his high school football team for being small.
He told his coaches about it, but they brushed it off and told him to do the same.
Now, his 6-year-old daughter is battling issues with bullies at her school in Indianapolis, and he won’t let it go.
He is on a crusade to end bullying, and he’s taking the message beyond his daughter’s school.

May 19, 2013
The bully bashers speak out
Nineteen-year-old Trenton Lewis wants to change the message hip-hop music is sending to kids across the country.
The Kokomo High School graduate envisions songs that inspire change and songs that promote safer schools instead of ones that glorify drugs and violence. He wants to push the negativity out of music.

May 19, 2013
Bullying statistics - May 19, 2013
May 19, 2013
State to spend $2 million to clean up voter rolls
Indiana’s bloated voter registration rolls, which officials say make elections more susceptible to fraud, will soon come under more scrutiny by the state.

May 19, 2013
Public Eye - May 19, 2013
May 19, 2013
More Local News Headlines

Local News

Search Results

Discussion

Feeling the cold for a cause

Annual Walk a Mile in my Shoes event Saturday.

Site Map

Contact Us