PeaceWorks' June 2009 Newsletter
Dear Friend of PeaceWorks,
I would like to invite you to attend and to support PeaceWorks' upcoming Annual Dinner at First Reformed Church in Secaucus, New Jersey on Sunday, June 14 - please note the date change from June 13. We'll come together for a celebration of hope and solidarity, enjoying great food and gathering inspiration from our guests and the other members of our community of sharing and action. I hope you can come.
Please note the change from our usual meeting spot in Chatham - we try to reach out to supporters and friends in other areas by having our Annual Dinners in different locations each year. Another, more central, reason we are having the dinner at First Reformed Church is that we will honor Lorna and Will Henkel (Will is the pastor of the church and both are long-time active community members) for their continuing and generous support of PeaceWorks over many years. We will also honor Esther Chavez for her long-time participation with PeaceWorks and for the indelible mark she has made in the New Jersey immigrant community as well as in her native El Salvador.
It is difficult to single out three people among all those who bring love and humanity to our global communities, but Will, Lorna, and Esther certainly have earned the honor of receiving PeaceWorks' 2009 Open the Sky Humanitarian Award, using the image from Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli's poem "lullaby for a country flooded in tears."
Will and Lorna have taken part in several PeaceWorks' delegations to Nicaragua, developing a special relationship with Los Sordos, a school for the hearing impaired in San Marcos. Over many years, they have brought truck-load upon truck-load of materials for our aid shipments, as well as bringing friends and family on loading day to help with the many joyful tasks it takes to pack our 45 foot cargo containers.
Esther had been a long-time member of PeaceWorks' Board of Directors before moving to Georgia with her family. We are thrilled that she will be back in New Jersey for the weekend of the 14th so she can take part in our annual dinner. Esther has also participated in several PeaceWorks' delegations, including one especially memorable journey that took us to the mountains of El Salvador, into the poorest barrios of San Salvador, and then to Nicaragua by bus accompanying a group of Salvadoran women who took part in an exchange with the Masaya Womenís Collective. Esther was part of a delegation that observed the historic March Salvadoran elections that elected a FMLN progressive President, especially poignant given her work with the assassinated Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero.
I have enclosed more details about the June 14 Dinner. We will share photos of PeaceWorks' relationships with the people of Nicaragua and present information about our continuing mission. We have also invited special guests who will delight us with their presence and musical/cultural performances. We hope you will make a tax-deductible donation that will go towards our Nicaraguan partner organizations and our humanitarian aid shipments. I have enclosed a response form if you would like to purchase space in the program and/or for you to purchase tickets. If you know of people who might be willing to make a donation in honor of the Lorna, Will, and Esther and/or to support our work, please approach those friends, businesses, community groups, and churches to ask for a donation.
As Belli appeals in her poem, "Let's begin. All of us. Let's open the sky . . ." Please join us in our continuing efforts to open the sky, to shine light upon and dispel injustice, to foster hope, to recognize courage and devotion — to create a "new world community based on love (expressed through solidarity) and the right of all human beings to share in and care for the gifts of the earth."
Thank you once again for listening, for caring, for acting. See you on June 14!
Peace,
Jim Burchell, PeaceWorks
Attachments
5.2.09 shipment report.pdf
Green Grows Nicaragua.pdf
Annual Dinner
annual dinner invite 6.13.pdf
First Reformed directions.pdf
PW Annual dinner journal ad sheet 2009.pdf
I would like to invite you to attend and to support PeaceWorks' upcoming Annual Dinner at First Reformed Church in Secaucus, New Jersey on Sunday, June 14 - please note the date change from June 13. We'll come together for a celebration of hope and solidarity, enjoying great food and gathering inspiration from our guests and the other members of our community of sharing and action. I hope you can come.
Please note the change from our usual meeting spot in Chatham - we try to reach out to supporters and friends in other areas by having our Annual Dinners in different locations each year. Another, more central, reason we are having the dinner at First Reformed Church is that we will honor Lorna and Will Henkel (Will is the pastor of the church and both are long-time active community members) for their continuing and generous support of PeaceWorks over many years. We will also honor Esther Chavez for her long-time participation with PeaceWorks and for the indelible mark she has made in the New Jersey immigrant community as well as in her native El Salvador.
It is difficult to single out three people among all those who bring love and humanity to our global communities, but Will, Lorna, and Esther certainly have earned the honor of receiving PeaceWorks' 2009 Open the Sky Humanitarian Award, using the image from Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli's poem "lullaby for a country flooded in tears."
Will and Lorna have taken part in several PeaceWorks' delegations to Nicaragua, developing a special relationship with Los Sordos, a school for the hearing impaired in San Marcos. Over many years, they have brought truck-load upon truck-load of materials for our aid shipments, as well as bringing friends and family on loading day to help with the many joyful tasks it takes to pack our 45 foot cargo containers.
Esther had been a long-time member of PeaceWorks' Board of Directors before moving to Georgia with her family. We are thrilled that she will be back in New Jersey for the weekend of the 14th so she can take part in our annual dinner. Esther has also participated in several PeaceWorks' delegations, including one especially memorable journey that took us to the mountains of El Salvador, into the poorest barrios of San Salvador, and then to Nicaragua by bus accompanying a group of Salvadoran women who took part in an exchange with the Masaya Womenís Collective. Esther was part of a delegation that observed the historic March Salvadoran elections that elected a FMLN progressive President, especially poignant given her work with the assassinated Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero.
I have enclosed more details about the June 14 Dinner. We will share photos of PeaceWorks' relationships with the people of Nicaragua and present information about our continuing mission. We have also invited special guests who will delight us with their presence and musical/cultural performances. We hope you will make a tax-deductible donation that will go towards our Nicaraguan partner organizations and our humanitarian aid shipments. I have enclosed a response form if you would like to purchase space in the program and/or for you to purchase tickets. If you know of people who might be willing to make a donation in honor of the Lorna, Will, and Esther and/or to support our work, please approach those friends, businesses, community groups, and churches to ask for a donation.
As Belli appeals in her poem, "Let's begin. All of us. Let's open the sky . . ." Please join us in our continuing efforts to open the sky, to shine light upon and dispel injustice, to foster hope, to recognize courage and devotion — to create a "new world community based on love (expressed through solidarity) and the right of all human beings to share in and care for the gifts of the earth."
Thank you once again for listening, for caring, for acting. See you on June 14!
Peace,
Jim Burchell, PeaceWorks
Attachments
5.2.09 shipment report.pdf
Green Grows Nicaragua.pdf
Annual Dinner
annual dinner invite 6.13.pdf
First Reformed directions.pdf
PW Annual dinner journal ad sheet 2009.pdf
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