The County Press

Lapeer Walk for Warmth set for Feb. 23




The 29th annual Walk for Warmth will be held Saturday, Feb. 23 in downtown Lapeer. Registration begins at 9 a.m., with the walk kicking off from the historic courthouse at 9:30 a.m. Proceeds will help local residents who are in need of home heating bill assistance. Photo by Phil Foley

The 29th annual Walk for Warmth will be held Saturday, Feb. 23 in downtown Lapeer. Registration begins at 9 a.m., with the walk kicking off from the historic courthouse at 9:30 a.m. Proceeds will help local residents who are in need of home heating bill assistance. Photo by Phil Foley

LAPEER – Hopefully it won’t be quite as frigid at the end of the month when the Human Development Commission (HDC) holds its annual Walk for Warmth in downtown Lapeer.

Volunteers will gather at the Lapeer Historic Court House at 9 a.m. for registration Feb. 23 and then, for the 29th annual year, spend a half-hour traversing downtown Lapeer for a good cause.

Changes in the administration of the program that doles out $45 million in federal funds to residents who’ve had heat shut off or are about to lose service has made Walk for Warmth more important than ever, said Lisa Myers, Program Director of the HDC’s Early Head Start Program.

Myers said those changes have made HDC’s heating assistance program the stop of last resort for people who fall through the cracks.

Walk for Warmth is a statewide event sponsored by HDC and other community action agencies (CAA) to raise funds for people with nowhere else to turn for assistance with heat and utility emergencies.

Myers said it’s meant to be a onetime event for people who have been pushed over the edge by things like an unexpected medical bill. Walk for Warmth benefits people living on fixed incomes or those ineligible for other types of assistance.

Myers explained, while typical local residents spend seven percent of their income on heating fuel in the winter, a Walk for Warmth recipient spends more than 30 percent of their budget to heat their homes.

More than 62 percent of those who seek HDC help with fuel payments, she said, receive no public assistance, and over half, 56 percent, are employed or have become recently unemployed. A typical Walk for Warmth recipient is a two or three-person household; 18 percent are disabled; 60 percent have children in the household; and 100 percent live in poverty.

Contact the HDC at 810-664-7133 to participate in the Walk or make a donation. Volunteers walk a one-mile circuit from the Historic Court House to the Marguerite deAngeli Library and back through downtown Lapeer.

The HDC is one of nearly 1,000 CAAs nationwide and provides individuals and families in Lapeer, Tuscola, Huron and Sanilac counties with a wide variety of services. Each county holds its own Walk for Warmth and the funds as held and spent locally.