1) The author is reluctant to participate in her family's annual walk to raise money for hunger relief but feels guilty when her younger sister decides to take part. 2) On the day of the walk, despite cold and rainy conditions, the author is inspired by the positive attitudes of others and walks the full 20 miles alongside her family. 3) Having completed the difficult walk, the author gains a new appreciation for her comfortable life and the importance of community service in helping those less fortunate.

1. Kristina D’Arcangelo D’Arcangelo 1
Professor David DiSarro
English 101
22 January 2013
A Walk to Remember
It was a brisk, windy day in late April. I woke up to my mother yelling at me, “Tina, get
up and make yourself useful for a change!” As usual, I groaned, rolled over, and decided that I
was not going to get up. After a few more unsuccessful attempts to get me out of bed by yelling
up the stairs, my mom finally ran up the stairs as fast as lighting and opened my bedroom door.
“The whole family is going to walk around the neighborhood and try to raise money, and I want
you to be a part of it this year,” my mother scolded. She was talking about The Walk for
Hunger.
For the previous five years, my mother, father, and older sister, Jessica, had participated
in the twenty mile walk through Boston known as the Walk for Hunger. It is a fund raiser in
which people sponsor “walkers” to walk anywhere from one to twenty miles throughout Boston.
The proceeds go to help starving families. This year, my younger sister, Sara, was finally old
enough to participate, and couldn’t wait. Her eagerness and willingness amazed me. How could
an eight year old be so excited to partake in a long, dreary walk, let alone a fund raiser? This got
me thinking, “If Sara’s doing it this year, I will never hear the end of it from Mom and Dad.
Maybe I’ll just walk a few miles.” I shared my thoughts with my mother and knew I couldn’t
amend my decision.

2. D’Arcangelo 2
Unfortunately, the guilt and shame of my younger sister participating in the walk didn’t
hit me until a week before the actual Walk for Hunger. My parents and sisters had already been
throughout the entire neighborhood as well as their jobs asking people to sponsor them and
donate money, so I didn’t know where to start. The sponsors will either donate a sum of money
of their choice or donate a certain amount of money for every mile you complete. I figured my
only option was to still walk around the neighborhood and see what happened. I can remember
starting at my neighbor’s house next door, when a ginormous gust of chilling wind blew my
pamphlet out of my hands. I began chasing after my papers thinking, “I knew this was a horrible
idea.” To my surprise, every single house I knocked on donated money. I could not believe that
people were still contributing even after they had already donated to my four other family
members. I also asked some of my teachers, all of which donated as well. Every single one of
my teachers was so proud of me and thought I was doing a very honorable thing. My disbelief
started changing into satisfaction.
Every year the Walk for Hunger is executed on a Sunday. Walkers can begin as early as
six o’clock AM. To my dismay, my mother would not let me out of the house the Saturday night
before. Again, I was regretting my choice to participate and was furious. When the big day
finally arrived, my mother woke me up at 5:00 AM, telling me that it was going to be very cold
and rainy. I put on many layers of clothing shivering, just thinking about the treacherous road
ahead of me.
The fifteen minute ride into Boston felt like an eternity. When we finally arrived at the
starting point, my attitude rapidly changed. Everyone was so cheerful and pleasant. The

3. D’Arcangelo 3
gratitude from all of the Walk for Hunger directors was warming and overwhelming. We
immediately started the walk. I can remember walking along the Charles River in a torrential
downpour with blustering winds forcing the rain to go sideways. I had a numbing chill
throughout my entire body. I kept forcing myself to think, “You’re doing the right thing. People
die every day from hunger, and the rain is not going to kill you.” I stuck it out, and ended up
walking the entire twenty miles with the rest of my family. To this day, I have never walked that
long aside from the Walk for Hunger. My family alone ended up raising over two thousand
dollars, which was very rewarding.
When I woke up the next day, I was like a concrete statue, unable to bend, let alone
move. My entire body was in excruciating pain. That extremely lengthy walk has shaped me. I
realized that I had taken my comfortable life for granite. I am lucky to have such great parents to
support me and push me to become a better person. I also recognized the importance of
community service.Without community service, the death rate would tremendously rise. It takes
courage and devotion for someone to give up their own time and money for a needy person; but
if you put yourself in someone less fortunate’s shoes your mind would change too. At first, I
thought twenty miles was unbearable, but after accomplishing it I realized that starvation was
much more intolerable than walking.