|
The Peace Resource Center
P.O. Box 1437
Bennington, Vt.05257
December 2005
"It isn't enough to talk about peace; one must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it, one must work at it."
Eleanor Roosevelt
As this year draws to a close we, at the Peace Resource Center, would like to share with you some of the ways in which we have been working at it both here in our community and in Somotillo, Nicaragua.
Throughout the year we have continued the vigils for peace at the Bennington Four Corners from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm on the first Saturday of each month. We encourage you to join us. We were heartened to welcome many who joined us in additional vigils: on Jan. 7 we joined Jun San and friends from the Grafton Peace Pagoda in a Peace Walk from N.Y. state through the town of Bennington; on Mar. 18, the 3rd anniversary of the Iraq War a large group gathered at the Bennington Four Corners with placards and coffins; on Sept. 21 many came to the Four Corners in Bennington to celebrate the International Day of Peace with a candle light vigil.
We again staffed an outreach table at Mayfest to offer information about the Peace Resource Center's mission and sold Nicaraguan craft items to raise funds. In August we invited the Bennington community to join the PRC peace contingent in the Battle Day Parade.
The Williams College Campus Greens, the Williams College peace & justice group, made contact with us to work on coordinating our peace & justice work. We are in the early stages of connecting with a variety of peace & justice groups in Bennington and the surrounding communities. We are proposing the creation of a Peace Council consisting of representatives of these groups to further coordinate our peace & justice efforts.
We cosponsored a number of presentations for the Bennington community such as the showing of the film The Red Wagon dealing with poverty and hunger in Vermont, the east coast tour of Compas de Nicaragua, a women's group from Managua, Nicaragua, presentations by Paul Baker-Hernandez from Managua, Nicaragua, and the 12th national tour of Jerusalem Women Speak. In the effort to work at peace and our desire to energize the Bennington peace & justice community we cosponsored a PRC attendee at the Scott Ritter workshop Waging Peace in a Time of War at Rowe Conference Center.
With your help and encouragement we have continued our 20-yr. commitment to working with the Social Commission and the Pueblo of Somotillo, Nicaragua. One of the PRC's longest standing projects in Somotillo is the scholarship fund which enables children to attend school by aiding purchases of a uniform, shoes, school and health supplies. For the first time this year a long-term scholarship student received financial aid for continuing education beyond high school. The PRC and the Somotillo Social Commission are currently exploring the possibility of a scholarship program for continuing education of high school graduates. We, at the PRC, were once again heartened and deeply touched by Nelle Knapp's (N. Benn. Graded School) contributions to the Somotillo scholarship fund. For many years she and her 3rd grade class have held a fundraising Holiday Bazaar, the proceeds of which are shared equally between the Somotillo scholarship fund and the Bennington Spirit of Sharing.
We have been very happy to learn from the Social Commission's communiqu&eaqute; of the great progress of various projects the PRC has funded with your generous support: the completion of a total of 5 wells, the success of the handcrafting workshops for women at the Casa de la Mujer, the garden at the San Ignacio school, the building of a mini basketball court which was largely coordinated and built by the young people who are the beneficiaries and which is part of a program to reduce addiction and larceny by youngsters.
We work at updating the PRC website (www.peaceresourcecenter.com) regarding events and recent developments and invite you to visit the site to stay in touch.
We hope that you share our mission and that in spite of the increasing demands on your financial resources in the last few years, you will continue to support our work. We wish to assure you that all of the PRC funds collected are delivered to the people and the programs described.
May this coming year bring a more harmonious balance between all beings that share this earth.
In Peace,
Juliana Centner, Claude DeLucia, Peter Lawrence, Barbara MacIntyre, Ray Mullineaux,
David O'Brien, Jane Sobel, Maryann St. John, Lin Sternberg, Terry Volz
Peace Resource Center Board of Trustees
The Peace Resource Center is a 501© (3) non-profit tax exempt organization. The Center confirms that you have not received any goods or services in exchange for your contribution. Your donation is tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
|
