13th Annual Walk for Warmth March 7 at Southland

The 13th annual Walk for Warmth is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 7, at Southland Center in Taylor.

The event is a fund-raiser of Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, which has set a goal of $50,000 to meet the heat and energy related needs in communities served by the agency. The Walk for Warmth is open to the public.

The two honorary chairman for this year's walk are Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and Bill Spencer, a reporter with Channel 7 WXYZ-TV.

Walkers are asked for a $15 minimum donation. All walkers are entered into a prize drawing and the first 300 participants receive an official 2009 Walk for Warmth t-shirt and a gift bag of goodies. Walkers must be present to win door prizes.

Each Walk for Warmth participant can set a personal fund-raising pledge goal and ask family, friends and colleagues for support. There are two options for collecting pledges this year. 

1. Collect pledges in the form of cash and checks using the paper pledge form. Download it on www.waynemetro.org.

2. Create a free Online fund-raising page using a simple template and send it to family and friends with a personal message to ask for support for the Walk for Warmth. Through this method, supporters can sponsor walkers through a credit card payment on a secure donation page. Research shows that online fund-raising pages help raise more money than traditional methods. To set up a personal fund-raising page, go to www.firstgiving.com/waynemetro and click the "Get Started" button. 

Walkers can form a Walk team. Team captains can ask friends, family and co-workers to join the effort. Teams can come up with a catchy team name and wear matching outfits to the event. There are special prizes for walk teams, including highest team total, biggest team of walkers, best team name and most team spirit. Teams can also connect their online fund-raising pages at www.firstgiving.com/waynemetro. Teams use a special registration form for collecting cash and check donations.

Wayne Metro expects to see a tremendous increase in demand for services this winter.