It started in the name of Cystic Fibrosis.

Three years ago, Darby Flynn and Brian Fischer were trying to come up with a new event for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

"CFF had more relationships in the suburbs than in the central city," Fischer said. "They wanted to grow in Downtown and educate more people in the city."

At the time, CFF had a national fundraising pub crawl event. Fischer suggested a gourmet food crawl instead.

"A week before the event, CFF canceled all the pub crawls around the country except for the Edible Crawl for a Cure because it had food and alcohol," he said.

By the second year, the Edible Crawl for a Cure sold out, with 1,000 participants strolling the streets of Downtown and sampling new restaurants.

With two years under their belts, Fischer and Flynn created their own events company, appropriately called Event'ually.

The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, the Jewish Federation and the Greater Broadway Partnership approached Flynn asking her if she could create a crawl to raise money for their organizations.

In two short months, three crawls bring thousands of crawlers to eat, walk and be merry in the central city.

The first crawl happened last Saturday. Eat Your Art Out toured 18 restaurants.

A lesser explored food haven inspired the second crawl. Around the World on Broadway kicks off tomorrow, showcasing 18 restaurants from a variety of cultures.

Restaurants include Andy Nguyen, Los Jarritos, New Canton, Kathmandu Kitchen, Queen Sheba, Tower Cafe, the new Iron Steaks and other restaurants in the Broadway area.

The last crawl for 2009 will benefit a number of charities. Jewish Federation Children and Family Services, Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center, The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Sacramento’s Save Ourselves Breast Cancer Center will all receive funds from the Big Nosh, a 30-restaurant crawl.

Flynn expects close to 1,500 attendees for this crawl, which will include many of the same restaurants from the Eat Your Art Out Crawl with the addition of some new ones: The Melting Pot, Aioli Bodega, Celestin's Island Eats, Le Petit Paris, Old Soul Co. and others.

After spending over 25 years in a run-down old school building in the Arden area, the Jewish Federation recently moved to 20th Street and Capitol Ave.

Being a part of a crawl was a way to "introduce ourselves to our neighbors," David Goodman, communication director of the Jewish Federation and Editor of the Jewish Voice, said. "There's a saying Tikkun Olam which means 'repairing the world." We wanted to give to other charities, helping not just the Jewish community but everyone in Sacramento."

Unlike the other two crawls which cost $35, the Big Nosh costs $36.

"In Hebrew, each letter has a numerical equivalent," Goodman said. "The number 18 is equivalent to life, so 18 times two is 36, that's kind of the idea."

"If you tried to go on your own to a few restaurants – you’d add up to $35 in two stops," Flynn said. "It really is the cheapest way to explore all the great restaurants in the central city."

Justin Llata has been to both Edible Crawls for the Cure and participated in the Eat Your Art Out Crawl. He is also planning on doing the Big Nosh.

"There isn’t one place that I wouldn’t go back to," Llata said of the restaurants in the crawls. "I love eating Downtown and Midtown."

Only locally-owned, independent restaurants are allowed to participate.

The crawls are meant to benefit everyone involved: the charities, the restaurants, the community and the participants

"We want people to discover the place in their backyard that they’re always driving by," Fischer said. "When you’re driving to work, running errands - you’re seeing all those places and then you forget about it."

"When you get out of your car you can see the architecture of the city. When people experince the walkability of Sacramento, they actually understand the layout of their city.They experience the grid.

"It allows them to create a social break in their lives, they get to actually spend quality time with a group of people – new friends, co-workers, old friends," he said. "It’s not a short event; it’s not a superficial event. It’s a day adventure. It’s a day trip in your own city."

The Around the World on Broadway Crawl is family friendly. Flynn said they wanted to be able to include the Land Park and Curtis Park neighborhoods, so there will be no alcohol for this crawl.

At the end of the crawl, Capitol Public Radio will be discussing their year-long "Around the World in 30 blocks" series at Beatnik Studios. The reception will include a slideshow and question-and-answer session about the restaurants featured in the series.

Crawlers get a taste of more than just food at the crawls put on this year. The Eat Your Art Out Crawl featured a performance by the Camellia Symphony at Brew It Up! and dancing by the CORE Dance Collective. In October, the Big Nosh will have local musicians at six locations, two of which are Autumn Sky and Ricky Berger.

Flynn and Fischer want to increase the excitement in the central city on any given weekend, not just for Second Saturday.

"We want to increase the capacity of events happening on weekends," Flynn said. "Not once a month, but every weekend."

Fischer added, "When you live in a city, it’s not somebody else’s responsilbitiy to make this city a better place, it's everyone's.

"The deeper [the] relationship, the better chance of riding out a tough economic storm because people have developed a relationship with the businesses in their backyard," he said. "And they care about them, [so] they’re more willing to help them."

For more information on the crawls and to buy tickets, visit www.crawltix.com.

Photos provided by Darby Flynn from the Eat Your Art Out Crawl.