After a week of 'Walkin’ The Country' to support the Food Bank of the Southern Tier’s BackPack Program™ in Tompkins County, Q Country’s Chris Allinger brought back a hefty backpack filled with donations.  As of 5PM on Friday, August 24th, Allinger reported that the donations collected in the backpack alone were in excess of $10,000.  Final totals will be announced during the Q Country 103.7 Morning Show on Monday, August 28th.

At 9:00AM on August 20th, Allinger set out on a mission to walk to every town in Tompkins County filling a backpack with donations.  Throughout the week, Allinger hosted “collection parties” and broadcasted from each of the towns on his route.  After arriving On The Commons in Ithaca around 5PM Friday night, Chris set out for a final wrap-up party at The Haunt to celebrate his journey and to thank the communities of Tompkins County for their support.

All of the donations made throughout the week will support the Food Bank of the Southern Tier’s BackPack Program in Tompkins County.  Allinger explains, “This is an important program that helps children that are going hungry right here in our community.”

The Food Bank’s BackPack Program™ provides healthy, child-friendly, and easy-to-prepare foods to children at risk of hunger over weekends and holiday breaks when children do not have access to free or reduced-price school meal programs. Each Friday children in need receive a bag of simple, easy-to-prepare food to get them through weekends and holidays.  These children, who rely on school lunch programs for sustenance, would otherwise go hungry when school is out.

“Our goal is to raise funds to support the BackPack Program™ in Tompkins County and to generate awareness about local childhood hunger.  We hope to raise as much money as we can,” says Allinger.  “The ‘Walking the Country’ event is specifically for Tompkins County and every dollar we raise will stay here to fight child hunger.”

Listeners were encouraged to visit Allinger at any of the stops on his route, and were able to track of Allinger’s rigorous trek online with interactive maps and a GPS feature on Q Country’s website, QCountry1037.com.  In addition, photo galleries were added throughout the week to document the journey.

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