Manheim Township townlively.com
SEPTEMBER 20, 2023
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL XXXIX • NO 17
Hope.Inspire.Love. talks the talk, walks the walk BY JEFF FALK
undraisers couldn’t generate financial resources without generous donors, and nonprofits couldn’t perform their philanthropic work without fundraisers. Four months after presenting its Hope for Freedom Gala, Hope.Inspire.Love. will conduct the second of its two yearly fundraisers, Freedom Walk, on Saturday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Musser Park, 135 N. Lime St., Lancaster. Hope.Inspire.Love is in its eighth year of battling human trafficking and sexual exploitation, and the event is designed to raise money for the fight against human trafficking and to raise the awareness of its effects. “Fundraising is vital. It’s the glue,” said Hope.Inspire.Love CEO and president Amy Thurston, who founded the organization with her husband, Steve. “Nonprofits rely on the community. We need their support financially. The survivors know the community is behind their healing, and we’re in the
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backyard of the community. I literally am sitting here every day thinking, ‘We could do so much if we had more funding.’” The Freedom Walk is a 2-mile walk carried out silently through the streets of Lancaster city, beginning and ending in Musser Park. In 2022, the walk raised $20,000 for the mission of Hope.Inspire.Love., and this year, Thurston is hoping to raise that and $5,000 more. “We walk on the sidewalk, in single file, in silence,” said Thurston. “There’s something bold about silence. Actions don’t need words. That’s why we do it.” “It’s a next step for people to learn about our organization,” Thurston continued. “People are walking for people who have been enslaved. It’s beautiful because we have survivors who attend. It says, ‘We’re all in this fight together. Let’s do better.’” Founded in 2019, the Freedom Walk will have its fourth iteration this year. In 2022, some 200 individuals took part in the event. Thurston would like to see that number rise to See Freedom Walk pg 4
Participants in the Freedom Walk seek to raise awareness of human trafficking.
Best friends honored in competition
BY CATHY MOLITORIS
Great things happen when women on a mission get together. Lancaster County Women for Good formed last year with the goal of raising money for local nonprofits. So far, the group has donated more than $23,000, with 284 women contributing to the effort. Most recently, the organization presented a check for $7,000 to Arch Street Center at Lancaster County Women for Good’s quarterly Gather & Grant meeting. Located in Lancaster, Arch Street Center
provides support and services for adults living with mental illness. Lancaster County Women for Good began as an outreach of Grapevine, a social giving platform that brings people together for philanthropic work. “Grapevine initiated a bunch of groups in different areas of the country and from that point handed it over to local leadership,” said founding member Anna Horst. She’s joined by the local leadership team of group host Joelle Terranova and event coordinators Susan Klapkin and Kirstin Knopp. Each local group sets its own
BY JEFF FALK
On the surface, friendships and rubber bands don’t seem all that similar. But the one thing they have in common is that when each one is stretched, it becomes more productive. Max Peña and Ezekiel Pujol know a lot about both rubber bands and friendship. Last spring, Manheim Township friends Ezekiel and Max each won a national championship at the University of Akron’s National Rubber
Band Competition for Young Inventors. Max’s spiderman web shooter entry took top honors in the science and engineering category, while Ezekiel’s pinball machine received the highest award in the arts and leisure division. Now 14-year-old freshmen at Manheim Township High School, the Venezuelan American boys have been friends almost since birth. “ We were entered in two Ezekiel Pujol (left) and Max Peña stand different categories, so we with their creations and their awards from weren’t necessarily competing the University of Akron’s National Rubber See Best friends pg 2 Band Competiton for Young Inventors.
See Building connections pg 3
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