Peace

¡Hola, Amigos! Pronto sera el tiempo por los ninos para ir a campamentos de verano. We are excited to present once again Camp Peaceprints, now in its 16th year! With the theme Healthy Lives Matter! The day camp for 8- to 13-year-olds runs July 17-28, Monday-Friday 10 am-3 pm, at the WNY Peace Center (Carriage House, Network of Religious Communities, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo 14209).  The camp focuses on social justice and peaceful conflict resolution in a diverse community working together. Besides exciting weekly field trips, the group swims 3 or 4 times, a health-building activity all ‘round! The children interact with community leaders, artists, activists, and storytellers. They will use music, art, theatre, dance, and recreation for self-expression and communication. In other words, they will learn, create, and play: Fun, fun, fun!! This year, we will explore personal and community health and how to maintain it. We will consider fundamental components of fitness: fresh air, clean water, sunlight, mindfulness/meditation or connecting to a higher power, sleep, exercise, whole foods, and rest. We will learn how a healthy environment benefits us, other living creatures, and the earth. And, of course, we will explore health equity disparities – how BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other communities face major health challenges. Campers will also learn what resources people need to have a healthy community and how their health matters in creating a healthy community. Eight dimensions of health are included: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental. We are happy to have teens come on board as Youth Assistants. Adult Volunteers, including foster grandparents – official and unofficial – are very welcome!! We also appreciate help transporting and accompanying children on field trips, including swimming! Field trips have included wonderful local sites/sights (e.g., in previous years: Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Museum, Ganondagan: Seneca Art & Culture Center, Nash House, art galleries, parks, beaches, the Falls – even Maid of the Mist, and more!) This year’s field trips should be excellent! Caregiver comments include, “They loved it!” “They kept doing and talking about things from Camp after Camp was over.” “It was something to stimulate their learning over the summer.” “It was a real help to us.” Campers virtually all said they wanted Camp to last longer! Other camper comments: “It’s so much fun…” “I learned a lot about being kind and loving and working for things to be better in the world.” “It helped me be more peaceful and feel good.” The Camp is a collaboration between the SSJ Sister Karen Klimczak Center for Nonviolence, the Prevention Council, and the WNY Peace Center. You can soon find more info and updates on the WNY Peace Center Facebook page; linker; or sisterkarencenter.org, including a registration form. The camp cost is sliding scale –finances should never be an obstacle! You can pay what you can, up to the fee of $225. We are thankful for grants, including from the Network of Religious Communities, helping to make Camp Peaceprints possible! Hasta Pronto!! Note: To Ruthy Harris: FAREWELL, MY FRIEND — Deep condolences to the family and friends of Ruthy Harris. We will all miss her loving, powerful, and passionate ways. Her words were always poetry, even when writing prose. The depth of her passion and compassion was clear and is such a heavy weight to bear, truly unbearable. She was a beacon for us all, articulating an unstoppable river of caring for the world, manifested both inside and out. May she rest in Peace. —- Vicky Ross Read More From This Writer All Post Art Books & Poems Business Community Education Entertainment español Food & Culture Health Interviews Military & Veterans Peace People Politics A TRAGEDY July 4, 2023/No Comments LEADING TO AN ANTI-BULLYING CAMPAIGN (a Community Responders Pilot and a Peace Ship for a Nuclear-Free Future) Hola, mis Amigos!!  Read More CAMP PEACEPRINTS 2023: HEALTHY LIVES MATTER June 4, 2023/No CommentsRead More EMBRACING BUFFALO / HEALING MOMENTS May 10, 2023/No Comments EMBRACING BUFFALO / HEALING MOMENTS “No podemos dejar que la gente abra brechas entre nosotros… porque solo hay una raza Read More Load More End of Content.

EMBRACING BUFFALO / HEALING MOMENTS “No podemos dejar que la gente abra brechas entre nosotros… porque solo hay una raza humana.” / “We can’t let people drive wedges between us … because there’s only one human race.” —  Dolores Huerta It has been almost a year since the horrific racist massacre on May 14, 2022, and the community is still reeling from the vicious, hate-infused murders by a white supremacist. At the Pursuit of Truth Conference and Launch organized by Ruth Whitfield’s family (oldest victim of the attack, at 86), leaders in the struggle made the same point that Dolores Huerta makes in the above quote.  National/international luminaries included Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia University School of Journalism; civil rights attorney Ben Crump; and Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Special Advisor to the UN Undersecretary for the Prevention of Genocide. Local leaders included Dr. Henry-Louis Taylor, UB Center for Urban Studies; John Washington, People’s Action Lead Housing organizer; Franchelle Parker, Executive Director Open Buffalo. And many more. Racism and bigotry are used to separate us. Trauma, with its fear and anger, creates and/or amplifies those separations. The brutal trauma at the (especially Southern) borders, the economic hardships, and the deep injustices to BIPOC (Black Brown Indigenous People of Color) have taken a terrible toll on all, and healing together is deeply needed.  We know we are stronger and better together, as our progressive leaders, activists, and organizers stress, and as our hearts tell us. That is why we’re Embracing Buffalo. Embracing Buffalo is a collaboration between the WNY Peace Center, faculty at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, and the UB School of Social Work. We know how deep the trauma goes and can offer some tools both for coping and for change. Onward!  Join us in Embracing Buffalo – Healing Moments, with Music and the Arts, on Saturday, May 13, 7 pm-9 pm, at 1272 Delaware Ave. Carriage House, Buffalo 14209, the WNY Peace Center’s own mini-community center.  We will have Dr. Sabrina N’Diaye, social worker, storyteller, peacebuilder, and activist, who splits her time between Baltimore, Maryland, and Senegal, West Africa. She has responded to multiple communities that have suffered brutal massacres, violence, and injustice including Houston, South Bronx, Parkland, Washington DC, and the prison system. (She will come in spite of the fact that her new book, Big Mama Speaks, about her grandmother, is coming out that very weekend).  Dr. Carol Penn, MD, GP, dancer/choreographer (formerly with Alvin Ailey Dance Theater), of Movement is My Medicine, may also come. Dena Adler, Art Therapist, will bring art materials for expressive works to – again – work toward individual and collective healing. All are faculty at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), a worldwide center for helping communities (and individuals) develop the tools they need to heal from population-wide trauma and build resilience. Deidra EmEl, WNYPC Executive Director, and I (VBR, WNYPC Board Chair), will have completed CMBM’s Advanced Training by that time.   Come enjoy healing moments to talk, laugh, groove, move, dance, make art, make music, and make our community and our world a better place.  #SiSePuede #Juntos! Read More From This Writer All Post Food Health Interviews Lower West Side Business & Economic Development Peace People RACISM IN THE BUFFALO POLICE DEPARTMENT (BPD)? March 16, 2023/No Comments “The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be anti-racist. Anti-racism Read More BLIZZARD RESPONSE? February 16, 2023/No Comments We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives, and Read More The WNY Peace Center had a great 55th Annual Dinner — A follow-up: January 16, 2023/No Comments The WNY Peace Center had a great 55th Annual Dinner — A follow-up: Algunas personas preguntan, “Como estaba, la Cena Read More Load More End of Content.