Category Archives: Peace Education

My Time with Mother Teresa: “Keep What You Get.”

MT rosaryFrom my journal dated December 29,1990

‘I went to Devotions at the Mother House tonight.  As I was leaving, Mother Teresa was just returning from a holiday gathering.  She stopped to talk with me and my companions.  She held my hands as she asked how we were doing.  I said I was fine and asked, “But how are you?”  She said she was just fine.  I asked her about her heart, knowing she had recently been in the hospital for a heart condition.  She said, “Oh it is fine.  I have two now, you know.  They gave me a pacemaker.”  We all giggled and she assured us she was feeling well.

Mother Teresa asked if I had my rosary.  That night at Devotions, we were given a plastic rosary.  I told her I had put it back.  She looked me in the eye and told me to keep what I get!   she said she would get me one tomorrow.  As she departed, she said, “God Bless you, dears.”‘

I was not there the next day and I did not have another chance to get a rosary while I was in Calcutta.  However, a few years later, my friend Amy went to Calcutta and brought me home a rosary from the chapel at the Mother House.  This simple gift reminds me to RECIEVE the gifts God gives me with gratitude, to use them with integrity and to share them with joy.

Preparations

It is almost time for us to leave. These past weeks have been spent packing and repacking the countless donations that have been put Into our care: Soccer balls, clothing, jackets, hats, shoes, socks, school, supplies and books challenge the seams of our suitcases. Meeting the weight and size restrictions challenge our minds. We are each allowed 2-50 lb bags, plus a carry on. Each of our checked bags can measure no more than 59 inches, our carry ons must be under 29 inches. Filling each bag with just enough heavy items with just enough light items so,that the bags fill the space and meet but do not go over the size restrictions has been a giant math puzzle. We finally had our 8 checked bags ready. I looked around the room and still there were so many beautiful items waiting to be packed. I called our airlines and discovered that we could add up to 25 lb per suitcase for an added cost of $50.00 each. Back to the Math problems. Which suitcases have more space to hold additional items? Which suitcases have heavy items that can be exchanged for light items without going over the size restrictions? The shuffling began and many hours later we had 40 additional pounds added for a total of 440lbs of donations ready to be delivered to Lesotho, in the name of our incredible community.

Lesotho Bound

This summer, I will spend 3 weeks in Lesotho, Africa with my husband, Niko, my 16 year old son, Sam and his best friend, Will.  Our focus is 3 fold.  First, to see our daughter of the heart and to meet her husband and 4 year old son.  We were Mary’s host family for a year as she volunteered at L’Arche Tahoma Hope.  She walked into our home and immediately was a part of our family.  After Mary returned to Lesotho, she married her beloved, Paul and had a baby whom she named after her Tacoma brother, Sam.  We are so excited to see Mary again and to meet our extended family in Lesotho.   When I told Mary that we were coming to see her, she replied “I have prayed for this for so long.  I never knew when it would happen and now it is happening.”  Together we wept with joy.  Mary has enlisted Sam and Will to teach in her classroom for 2 days that we are with her.

Secondly, we will spend 8 to 10 days at the St. Camillus Center.  I was on the board of The Lesotho Connection(TLC), here in Tacoma for 3 years.  TLC has recently completed a long time goal of building a new home for the St. Camillus Center.  This home houses 20 children orphaned by AIDS. There are over 200,000 children orphaned by AIDS in Lesotho.  This is roughly  the population of Tacoma.  We will spend our time serving in whatever way we can be most helpful to the center.  Also, Sam and Will will use their talents in music to write a song with the children that we will record so that it can be used both by The Lesotho Connection and by the St. Camillus Center in their promotional materials.

Thirdly, we will spend 3 to 4 days at a game reserve in South Africa to take in the amazing animals of South Africa and to learn about conservation projects in place.  Sam and Will have been animal enthusiasts from the start.  Their love of animals has been  one of the things that has nourished their deep friendship for the past 16 years.

Sam and Will have committed to paying for their airfare, spending money and time at the game reserves and to help raise funds for playground equipment and a sign for The St. Camillus Center.  To fulfill this commitment they have created and are selling cards with their original artwork as well as selling my Umbutu tea.  If you would like to support their efforts, you can purchase their items at Sam and Will’s Etsy Shop  or you can check out their project updates on their fundraising page at Sam and Will’s You Caring Site

This is a trip of a lifetime, but it is more than that.  As parent’s it is an opportunity to offer these young men an opportunity  to have their image of themselves and their world expanded.  It is an opportunity to allow and encourage them to steadily and faithfully work towards a goal and to bring it to fruition.  It is an opportunity for them to share their gifts in a profound way and to have their gifts shaped in new and profound ways by the Lesotho people. This is a trip that will crack all of our hearts open, that will change us in ways we do not yet know, and that will imprint on our souls our place in the family of humanity.

Click the link below to watch this beautiful video about the St. Camillus Center:

About the Lesotho Connection

 

Global Art for Peace 2012 Peace Club Submission

This is a photo of the piece of art that the Peace Club students at Bryant Montessori created for Global Art for Peace. Today it will be shipped to China as a gift to the Xiamen Haicang School. The Global Art for Peace Projects matches individuals, groups and school with others around the world to exchange art that depicts their dream of peace. Between April 23rd and April 30th, These pieces of art are sent around the world in an art exchange. All these dreams of peace circling our globe…such a beautiful image, isn’t it?

Our students send their piece with excitement. They are proud of the beautiful artwork they have created and the are inspired by the proclamation they wrote. The eagerly await the art from the Xiamen Haicang School.

The roots of the tree are made from the hand prints of 5 of the core students of the club, the fingerprints are from all the students in our middles school. The statement, written to the side of the tree was written by 5 of our middle school students. It reads:

We are Students for Peace.
We are magical.
We appreciate differences.
We honor tolerance, acceptance, intelligence and cooperation.
We do not like war.
We believe everyone deserves basic human rights.
We believe in caring.
We believe in living sustainably and respecting the earth and all its creatures.
We believe that no one should be denied the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
We are agents of Peace.

Bryant Peace Committee Accomplishments 2010-11

For the 2010-11 school year, the peace committee students chose Nutrition as their focus. Our goal was to explore and promote healthy nutrition in our own lives, in our school, in our community and in our world. We accomplished the following:
• Provided Leadership training to 6 middle school students,
• Enrolled 30 students in our weekly afterschool peace program
• Organized a family Harvest for Health Dance
• Collected Healthy Food for Tacoma’s Food Connection
• Designed and implemented and International Peace Day Assembly and rededicated ourselves as an International Peace Site,
• Bagged up over 2000 individual servings of a protein mix for the Food Connections Back Pack Program
• Provided an after school class on non-violent communication training to the students in the peace committee
• Produced and sold a Bryant Community Healthy Kids Cookbook
• Promoted healthy snacks in our school and at school events
• Raised over $1400.00 for Heifer Projects, enabling us to purchase a cow, a water buffalo, a pig, a goat, 2 sheep, 3 flocks of chicks, 2 flocks of geese, 2 flocks of ducks, 3 bee hives and a set of trees to help families in Africa.
• Promoted the Be the Spark: Desmond Tutu event at the Tacoma Dome, providing 66 scholarship tickets, 2 free buses, 60 t-shirts and free pizza to the 120 people from the Bryant community who participated in the event.
• Organized and Implemented an Earth Day Garden Fair and Parade of the Species in which we had 60 activity, information and vendor tables and over 1500 people attended.
• Purchased and Painted 4 more rain barrels on our school.

Thanks to Everyone Who Voted!

Thank you for everyone who voted for Sam’s Disco Party for Peace in the Parties with a Purpose Competition. We came in 2nd place and raised $500.00 for the Bryant Peace Committee. We had people voting for our video in Africa, Germany, throughout the US, including 30 advertising executives voting during a meeting in New York city. What an awesome example for our children of the power of community. Thank You!

Vote for Sam and help raise $1000.00 for the Bryant Peace Committee

Sam’s Disco Party for Peace has made the top 5 in a Party with a Purpose competition. The video that gets the most votes will receive $1000.00 for their purpose. Will you help us win by clicking on the link below and then giving Sam’s video a thumbs up. The money he raises will benefit the Bryant Peace Program.

http://vivanista.com/2011/01/the-results-are-in/
Thanks for your help!

A Boy’s Dream of a Disco Party for Peace

When Sam was only 8 years old, he had a Disco Party for Peace to help children affected by war and violence. Sam was inspired at Sunday School where he drew a picture. AS I admired his work, his teacher asked him to tell us about his picture. He looked at the 2 of us and exclaimed, “It’s a Disco Party for Peace!” I giggled. I told him I would go to a Disco Party for Peace and I would have fun! As we drove him, I probed Sam about his idea. ” What we do at a Disco Party for Peace, Sam?” “We would raise money to stop ALL war.” he replied. We discussed what a BIG goal this was and decided it may be too big a job for just us, but we could do our piece in creating a more peaceful world. Sam initially decided he wanted to raise $10,000.00 to help the children in Iraq and Sudan and to buy peace education materials for his HIlltop public school, Bryant Montessori. However, a month before the event, he watched a clip on Oprah about Liberian children orphaned by the Civil War. He turned to me and asked, “Can we raise our goal to $15,000.00 so that we can send money to those children, too?” I took a deep breath and said, “Sure, but we are going to need help.”

Sam’s friends helped him by making artwork that was sold at a Kids Helping Kids art sale at the Disco Part for Peace. The Sunday School classes created artwork for the event. 10 year old, Elise held a beading party. She and her friends made necklaces, earrings, and bracelets to do their part for Peace. Families made a Peace Gnome, peace necklaces, kids from Bryant Montessori made peace bowls, handmade cards, and a peace table and a neighboring school made a peace pole. Students from the local Universities offered their assistance in putting on the event.
Sam wrote letters inviting almost 40 politicians and celebrities to the event. His list included: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Governor Gregoire, Dennis Kucinich, Mayor Baarsma, Norm Dicks, Superintendent Milligan, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Senator Debbie Regala, the Prime Minister of Australia, Ty Pennington, Ellen, Rosie, Oprah, Kelly Rippa, Regis Philban, The KOMO 4 News Team, Northwest Afternoon, Diane Sawyer, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Tima Allen, John Travolta, Jim Paige, Raffi, and the Wiggles. Senator Debbie Regala attended the event, Barack Obama had his staff call Sam and sent him a personal letter and Steve Martin sent Sam $100.00 towards his efforts.

As we prepared for the event, money started flowing in. When we sent our first check to JRS to help Sudanese Refugee children with school fees Sam was vibrating with excitement. “Those kids are going to be so excited, Mom. Let me show you how excited they will be…” He then drew a picture that had an outline of the United States and an outline of Africa. Up in the NW corner of the US was a stick figure of a boy holding his hand out giving the money. Then there was a picture of a plane flying from the US to Africa and then 3 stick children in Africa jumping up and down yelling “Yipee!!!”

Over 400 people attended the Disco Party for Peace on April 27, 2007. Over $15,300.00 was raised. This event was important because it educated others on the plight of children in our world, it brought families together to dance, create art and have fun together for a common purpose, and it allowed children to have an impact on their world. In his letter to politicians and celebrities Sam wrote, “I want to help these children because I think it is right. I want the children to know that I care about them.” Amen, Sam, Amen.