God’s Pantry Food Bank – 12/12/12 Challenge

Kentucky – Wednesday, December 12

I left Tara’s house a little before noon and got back into Kentucky a few hours later. I made my way toward Lexington, trying to figure out a good place to get out and walk. When I saw the signs for historic Georgetown, I knew I had my spot. Georgetown had a nice downtown area, lots of neighborhoods and Georgetown College to walk through, and we covered 4 1/2 miles before dark walking all over the place. Then I headed for the Kentucky Horse Park, where Tara’s friend Paige had told me there was a wonderful light show. And she was right! It was a wonderfully festive display of “animated” Christmas scenes (The 12 Days of Christmas was a highlight); fairy tale/Disney/cartoon scenes; and horse scenes. My favorite scene was a starting gate at a race track with numerous horses breaking out in a race. It’s astonishing how they can use wire and lights to create scenes with such detail that the racing horses actually appeared to be moving (while taking a walk down there by the light of day I could see the framework for 12-15 horses at different points in their stride, and they were just lit up in sequence which made it seem like they were moving.) At the end of the nearly 2 mile long light show (mostly through the campground on the Horse Park property), visitors had the choice of going inside the visitor center where local craftspeople had set up lots of booths, and the international horse museum. I went in and actually accomplished some Christmas shopping, and I went through the museum which highlights the relationship between human and horse back to the beginning of known history. I had been to the Kentucky Horse Park back in 2010, but I think we missed the museum in favor of all the other outdoor shows and programs going on at the time. I was glad to see it now. There were also model train displays, doll house displays, a petting zoo for kids, lots of fair-type snacks (fresh-popped kettle korn – yum!), and pony and camel rides for kids. It was a very enjoyable Christmasy evening. It was a long walk from the far end of the parking lot, and then thru the Horse Park to the museum, and I got another mile in (more actually, but I’m only counting one). I have 2 1/2 miles to make up for today, and combined with the extra miles I need to make up for Sunday when I left for Ohio, I will be doing some extra walking during my remaining days in Kentucky!

I stayed nearby in Lexington, where I had found a very reasonable rate at a motel (that AARP card has saved me lots of money!). Since I had arrived late in Kentucky, I didn’t hold out much hope of making a donation today. But as I started looking into different food pantries and getting some ideas for upcoming donations, I ran across a website for God’s Pantry Food Bank, which seems to be a combination of many churches and non-profits in the area that reach out to help people in a large geographical area. The fun thing to read about on their website was a 12/12/12 Goodgiving Guide Challenge where numerous non-profit organizations had a contest to see which one could raise the most money between 12 noon and 12am on 12/12/12, and the prize was a $1212.12 contribution from the Council of State Governments. So that’s where my $56.12 donation-of-the-day went – I couldn’t pass up a fun opportunity for a special 12/12/12 donation!