rachelh@myweeklysentinel.com
BRADFORD COUNTY — Traveling more than 100 miles for hunger, Bill Frye of Troy has helped CHOP raise more than $5,000 so far. Frye works for Pivot Physical Therapy.
The annual fundraiser, now in its 7th year, is still on-going for donations for the raffle until the end of the month.
“About 7 1/2 year ago I decided I wanted to do something in the community. I thought ‘What could we do to incorporate our Pivot clinics but also do some community outreach?’” said Frye.
That same year, a community member lost a child to cancer and Frye wanted to help, so he began taking donations for what would be this fundraiser now.
Fast forward a couple of years, and the relationship between Frye and Child Hunger Outreach Partners strengthened and they became partners for the annual event. CHOP is expanding and not only providing food to the area, but crisis boxes as well. Just recently, they provided crisis boxes to the people of Canton when the power outage occurred a couple weeks ago.
Throughout the week last week, Frye walked from one Pivot branch to another: Tunkhannock to Wyalusing (Monday) Wyalusing to Towanda (Tuesday), Towanda to Athens (Wednesday) Athens to Troy (Thursday) and Troy to Canton (Friday).
Frye walks 101.5 miles total, but added some this year due to road work on Wednesday.
“A tree fell across the road,” said Frye, “Maybe like 10 minutes before I got to that area. So, they didn’t even start cutting it down yet and they wouldn’t let me through.
Instead, Frye took the scenic route and still made it to the destination in time.
The time to walk each route is about a full day, with Frye beginning at 8 a.m. most days, depending on the weather forecast, and arriving at a clinic toward 3-4 p.m. He says that Thursday is his longest day, which takes about 10 hours total.
“The most difficult route is Tunkhannock to Wyalusing. It’s more difficult because of the elevation changes. There’s a lot of hills that you’re going through. There’s a couple hills you go straight up for two miles,” said Frye.
Most days, he makes the trek alone on designated highways such as 220 and Route 6, though he did have to make a detour this year due to road work.
“It’s constant awareness of people being around you,” said Frye. “90% of it is all on the main road.”
Thursdays, Barry Morgan, the head of performance of Pivot in Troy, joins him on the route from Athens to Troy.
“It’s good to have the company of him with me,” said Frye.
The last day is pretty special for him because his son Joseph joins him, as well as Shane Wilber.
The significance of his orange shirt is that orange is the official color that represents hunger.
“It happened by accident. I wanted to pick a brighter color, thinking a green, but then I happened to look up the color for hunger and found that it was orange,” said Frye.
Frye says the most rewarding aspect of doing the fundraiser is the people.
“It’s nice to get honks and people waving, but it’s nice seeing the number,” said Frye, speaking on the amount of donations. “Dani from CHOP sent me a screenshot of the total amount online and she was so ecstatic, noting how many families it will help. I’m out there to raise awareness and hopefully encourage people to donate,” said Frye.
The following businesses donated to the cause thus far: Pivot Performance, Shore Sisters, Rustic Glory Woodworking, Callears BBQ, Deep Roots Hard Cider, Stir, Building No. 9, Jimmy’s Park Hotel, Wiggle 100, CC Allis and Sons, Advance Auto Parts, Arm Assassin Strength Shop, Troy's First Citizen's Bank and $50 lottery tickets anonymous donor.
“Right now, we are at the most we have ever done, but we are still collecting,” said Frye, who noted the goal this year was $6,000-10,000.
“We’re definitely going to make the $6,000. With each year, we are definitely growing and we are collecting more this year than we did last year.”
For every $5 donated, an entry is put in for one of the auction items.
For more information or how to donate go to any branch of Pivot to place a donation or donate online at https://childhungeroutreachpartners.networkforgood.com/projects/132680-pivot-walk-for-hunger?fbclid=IwAR319FkD9sTIOCLfBai8--5uELiBDvdw758kP__ha0ATbCCt0Fi5DhREIqY. The link can also be found on the Pivot Walk for Hunger Facebook page.