Danny Garcia of the GlobalWalk Foundation Completes 25,000 Miles for Peace With a Trek from D.C. to NYC on Oct. 17-26

 

Where Peace Lives Supports the Final Leg of Garcia’s Round the World Odyssey

Leesburg, VA – When Danny Garcia, founder of the Global Walk Foundation, took his first steps toward a global commitment to peace 12 years ago, he had no idea how far the road would take him. On Oct. 17-26, the final leg of his journey will lead Garcia home to New York City, where he will culminate a trek the length of the circumference of the globe that has shined a beacon on the cause of peacebuilding and the issues of providing for children.

For this final leg, Garcia will walk with support from and on behalf of the nonprofit group Where Peace Lives. He will begin his walk for peace in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Oct. 17, by joining his close friend Tim Miner, along with hundreds of people from around the world at the U.S. Freedom Walk Festival. Miner created this walk to foster fun, fitness, and international friendships. What’s great about it is that embassies from around the world are opening their doors to the walkers who will then be stepping on “foreign soil” each time they cross the threshold of a different embassy. The walkers will be completing a symbolic trek around the world along with Garcia! As he concludes that walk around the world, Garcia will then begin his walk to New York City to complete his own trek.

“This walk is a celebration of all the people and organizations who have helped me during this 25,000 mile walk,” says Garcia who is an ex-marine and an ordained minister. “I could not have done it alone. I’m grateful to God and to each and every person who has been with me along the way. My message has always been ‘love one another.’”

Garcia’s walk concludes at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan on Sunday, Oct. 26 from 2pm to 4pm. A celebration of peace will welcome Garcia, 63, and those who accompany him to St. Paul the Apostle, at the corner of 59th Street and Columbus Avenue.

“We want to invite children and adults in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark and all the other towns along Danny’s route to join in this walk for peace,” says Donna Clapp, executive director of Where Peace Lives, which trains children and teens in conflict resolution and peace-building through art and media.

“We would also love everyone to come to the event at St. Paul the Apostle, which is celebrating its 150th jubilee year this year. We envision an event at St. Paul the Apostle that captures the love, spirituality, and joy that comes from creating a culture of peace,” says Clapp. “It will be a day filled with song and celebration for adults and children alike. Singer/songwriter, Bruce Foster is coming to sing songs of peace with the choir at St. Paul the Apostle. Last but not least, this is a celebration of Danny’s completing walking the circumference of the earth—25,000 miles for peace!”

Garcia, who began his trek in San Francisco in 1996, has been sharing stories of faith, redemption, and peaceful coexistence as he has walked his path of peace. The journey has taken him to Australia, where he walked from Perth to Sidney in celebration of the 2000 Summer Olympics; to Europe, where he has made walks through Ireland, Scotland, Belgium and Holland. His journey includes a 26-day journey through the Philippines to raise funds for the Red Cross, and a trek from Jordan to Jerusalem to aid the plight of an 11-year-old boy who needed heart surgery. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, Garcia walked to New Orleans, to raise money for relief and rebuilding efforts.

Along the way, Garcia has received extensive coverage from the print and electronic media, and presented gifts of peace to presidents and dignitaries such as Pope John Paul II, but he says he is mainly inspired by the many ordinary people who join him and support him during his walks.

“For me, this whole journey has all been a miracle,” says Garcia, a native of New York’s Spanish Harlem community. “At 63, after walking all these miles, to be able to celebrate at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, it’s the perfect way to end this chapter in my life. I will thank God and thank everyone for all of the help I have received, because there’s no way I could have done this by myself.”

The Global Walk Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Leesburg, VA. Global Walk Foundation is a non-sectarian, non-political organization. The work of the Global Walk Foundation encompasses the globe in ways that support peace. Founder, Danny Garcia, has been walking for over 10 years and traveled over 25,000 miles to raise awareness for children’s rights and world peace. To learn more visit www.globalwalk.cc

To learn more or to schedule an interview contact either Danny Garcia, Global Walk Foundation, prayerwalker007@yahoo.com, or Donna Clapp, Where Peace Lives, dclapp@wherepeacelives.org.

Pampering for Peace – a successful wellness fair fundraiser

 

Where Peace Lives held a successful fundraising* event on September 20th in Red Bank, N.J.. The wellness fair encouraged over a hundred guests to treat themselves to massage therapy, reflexology, or reiki, try raw foods, visit wellness vendors, enjoy great live music, win $$$ raffle prizes, view kids peace murals, all while helping raise money to teach our kids to make the world a better place.

Over a thousand raffle tickets were purchased by guests who had a chance of winning from over 20 beautiful gift baskets that included health and wellness items, theatre and concert tickets, books, dvds, cds, gift certificates to local vendors, and much, much more. The success of the event was so palpable that many asked when the next event would be. The event will be hosted as an annual fundrasing event in the Red Bank area and the group is investigating hosting an event in northern N.J. in the future.

The Where Peace Lives staff would like to personally thank the following people—
Where Peace Lives Board/Advisory Board: Jane, Laura, Pat, Virginia, Jessica

The event committee: Ivone, Colleen, Amy, Susie, Pat, Barbara, Walt, Billy, Roseann, Jessica, and Lisa - 
without you there would be no event!

To all the massage therapists, reflexologists, facialists, reiki masters, and raw food specilaists who donated their time, love, and energy.

To our fabulous vendors from around NJ and New York who provided such great resources for our many interested guests.

To all the incredible people who so graciously donated the hundreds of dollars of items to be raffled off during the event.

The United Methodist Church of Red Bank and the custodian, Rich, for really supporting our event.

And of course to all our guests who made the event so exciting and fun. We’ll see you all next year!

*All proceeds from the event are going to fund Where Peace Lives programs both here in the U.S. and abroad.

THE ENERGY OF PEACE AND HARMONY

THIS IS A POWERFUL VIDEO THAT SPEAKS TO THE ENERGY OF PEACE AND HARMONY THAT IS SURFACING IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. TAKE A LOOK… Zoe Kravitz, the author, is the daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet.

View it live here.
http://www.dipdive.com/dip-politics/wato/

Walsall’s 3rd Annual Anti Bullying Conference – Being Different, Belonging Together

To Whom It May Concern:

Walsall’s Anti Bullying Conference has been held for 3 years consecutively. It gives the children and young people of Walsall and their schools an opportunity to show what they have been doing in relation to bullying. It also provides an opportunity for local business to come together and discuss this important issue and what can be done with regards to the prevention of bullying. 

The day consists of performances from choirs and a cultural dancing group and offers the opportunity to participate in workshops during the day, finishing with a balloon launch on the football pitch (at Banks Stadium, Walsall football club where the event is being held) alongside the closing ceremony.

This event has been widely supported and last year received support from Dame Kelly Holmes, Eastenders and Hollyoaks.

Could you send me leaflets/ posters and booklets to have on display at our annual Anti-Bullying conference please?

Address: FAO: Louise Downey
Walsall Children’s Services 
Education Development Centre
Pelsall Lane
Rushall
WS4 1NG

10 Ways to Take Design Action and Make a Positive Difference in the World

In Articles by Sean Hodge

Can we make a positive difference in the world through the use of design? If so, how? Let’s look at ten ways to take decisive action through the use of design.

Designers deliver messages with impact, and are trained in conceptual and high-value visual thinking. They can use these skills to assist non-profits, eco-friendly companies, and active charity groups. We can raise funds through the sale of our donated design work, launch projects with big concepts that are grounded in practical campaigns, and more. Let’s discuss some of these ideas.

1. Sell Your Design Work and Donate the Funds to Charity

There are numerous models to follow here. In the example below a large assortment of talented designers put together a book featuring their work. The book is titled, “Designed To Help.” The proceeds went to help the tsunami crisis in Asia.

With the recent “Solving Poverty” Button Design contest here on PSDTUTS, we’ll be using the winning entries to set up a store where proceeds of the button sales will go to Kiva.org. This leverages the PSDTUTS community to empower individual designers to create artwork for a worthy cause.

2. Deliver a Message with Impact and Give it Exposure

Whether you’re creating the message, or working within an existing campaign, as a designer you can communicate with impact. Ultimately, the message should make you think or be something positive that makes people want to grab onto. You can also get creative with your method of delivery or use of social media. Of course, this is what we do best as designers – give ideas shape, form, and strong visual appeal. Choose the right cause and jump in.

Shepard Fiery has created numerous critical political designs, has participated with delivering messages on the street, and worked to deliver strong messages. Here is an interview with him where he discusses his beliefs, artwork, and how they work together. His Obey campaign is well known and for a good overview of his work see the Shepard Fairey Wikipedia entry. 

3. Choose to Work with Companies or Organizations that Make a Difference

You could choose to work directly for a charity or non-profit organization. Thereby, contributing daily to assisting the groups cause. This could be on an individual project or permanent basis. Or, as a freelancer choose to only take on work from organizations and companies who’s polices and practices you agree with.

You may choose to work for a corporation or business though. Before accepting a design position with a company, you should review their policies, evaluate what they contribute to making a difference, and what your role might be in these initiatives.

This is something I didn’t consider when starting to work for Envato, which was Eden at the time I can to work here. It’s really inspiring to be writing this post, and contributing to Blog Action Day, which is a nonprofit, grassroots movement of thousands of individual bloggers coming together for one cause.

4. Create a Website or Video Dedicated to Solving an Issue or Spreading Awareness

Now this requires a bit more technical knowhow than visual design alone, as it requires you to pursue more technical knowledge, or find someone to partner with, but it’s far from outside the boundaries of what we could pursue. Many of us are savvy web enthusiasts and could really pull together a unique website dedicated to solving issues or spreading awareness in support of a cause.

A one person driven initiate called the UnculturedProject has been popular for quite some time. It’s a YouTube channel put in place to change the conversation about poverty. The channel has had much more success than any other Global Poverty channel on YouTube. Shawn, who runs the project has touched many lives and educated numerous people on ways to assist with solving poverty issues.

5. Train in Working with Eco-Friendly Practices or Making Graphics for Green Companies

Educating yourself on up to date standards regarding eco-friendly practices will allow you to serve as a resource to help your clients make good decisions. Here is an introductory article on Green printing to get started on this topic. There are certainly many more topics that will allow you to serve as a resource for your customers.

Also, consider your role as teacher. How can you help other designers with their client projects geared toward eco friendly customers. Ryan one of our regular writers at VECTORTUTS, wrote a tutorial on creating an environmentally friendly type treatment that gives some great techniques that could be used in branding this type of company or organization.

6. Apply Your Conceptual Design Experience to Solve Local Issues and Impact Global Issues

The Art Center College of Design has an interesting program called Designmatters. In it students take part in project where they work with agencies toward making a real world difference.

One such project had students working with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Safe Motherhood Initiative to create an awareness campaign on maternal mortality, which is an often overlooked issue within third-world countries. This project offered no direct calls to action and required deeper solutions. “Designing for the UNFPA challenged students to think beyond just a client’s vision or brand, but to consider how to effectively communicate to the global public about a real-world problem.”

7. Launch a Good Project with Great Intentions

Doing some good in the world is a noble mindset. Creating a good project can make a tangible difference. The makers of Good Magazine have raised over $800,000 for various charities with their hybrid online and bimonthly print magazine. It offers a unique model whereby %100 percent of subscription costs go to charities of your choice. The magazine offers a combination of inspiring, thought provoking, and informative content about pushing the world forward through progress and change.

8. Donate Your Design Skills Directly to a Non-Profit Organization or Charity Group

This is a fairly simple model to follow. Take on a client project pro-bono for a non-profit. This is a great way for young designer’s to build their portfolios with real projects and experienced designers to stay connected to the community.

About a month and a half ago Mark Hayword, one of my blog friends, mentioned a non-profit project he planned to launch that had some really interesting concepts behind it. Here is a link to a post that describes the model he was proposing. What also really caught my attention was that social media savvy individuals and popular bloggers were behind the project. They had some great launch and long-term plans.

9. Run a Donation Driven Design Contest on Your Blog

If you have your own design blog, no matter the size, then you can run a contest to drive donations. Here is a post on running graphic design contests to get started. Styletime is running a contest in support of Blog Action Day and has amassed quite an impressive array of prizes. To be eligible requires you to donate a dollar at a minimum.

Really you could run any kind of fundraising event as well that is design driven. Here on PSDTUTS we just launched the “Solving Poverty” Button Design contest, and on VECTORTUTS the accompanying “Solving Poverty” T-Shirt design contest, which uses both a competition and sales of designed items to provide funds toward Kiva.org, a micro-loaning non-profit group that helps entrepreneur in developing countries lift themselves out of poverty.

10. Create a Mission for Your Design Business That Makes a Difference

Aside from being listed within numerous web design galleries as having a high-impact site design, Studio 7 Designs Inc. also stand out based on their focus on working with eco-friendly practices. They seek out environmentally conscious companies. This is stated on their about page, but can also be viewed in their portfolio, which indicates they practice what they are saying. There page on environmentally friendly web design indicates that they donate to Kiva.org and myclimate.org, it also shows the eco-friendly standards they adhere to.

Peace One Day – A Short Video Explaining Peace One Day

Peace One Day – A Short Video Explaining Peace One Day.

Jeremy Gilley is an actor turned film maker, who in the late 1990’s became preoccupied with questions about the fundamental nature of humanity and the issue of peace. He decided to explore these through the medium of film, and specifically, to create a documentary following his campaign to establish a day of ceasefire and non-violence.

In 1999, Jeremy founded Peace One Day, a non-profit organisation, and in 2001 Peace One Day’s efforts were rewarded when the United Nations unanimously adopted the first-ever day of global ceasefire and non-violence on 21 September annually – Peace Day.

In 2007 according to the UN, over 100 million people were active on Peace Day, in 192 countries. There were life-saving initiatives in 14 countries, and over 80 activities in Afghanistan alone where 1.4 million children were vaccinated against polio.

WHAT WILL YOU DO TO MAKE PEACE ON 21 SEPTEMBER?

Peace Being NOW! – Trailer Preview

“PeaceBeingNOW!” – The Film, was conceived as a way to get young people – who, having emerged from adolescence into young adulthood, have known nothing but WAR for the last 7 Years – into a conversation on how to bring about PEACE in the World in their lifetime. The film’s message will bring YOU, the Audience, to a startling and provocative realization!

Cheryl Crow Spreads the word. PEACE BE UPON US!

PowerPoint for Peace is launched

PowerPoint for Peace is launched

We are very excited to share with you the launch of a new peace initiative called PowerPointforPeace!

Conceptualized by Glenna Shaw, the PowerPoint magician and facilitated by Geetesh Bajaj from Ppted.com, this is an ambitious project, where the hope is to create a universal presentation on global peace with contributions from people who wish to promote World peace. Check it out today.

Contribute Your Slide to World Peace

Fifty years ago on a cold, grim Easter holiday…

 

Fifty years ago on a cold, grim Easter holiday, a protest was meant to be a watershed: a global call to ban the bomb. 

People marched from London to a factory in the countryside where Britain built its atomic bombs. Pat Arrowsmith was among those early campaigners for nuclear disarmament. 

“It was quite clear that we were not just against the tests, and we were not just against the British bomb,” Arrowsmith said. “We were against the Soviet bomb and against the U.S. bomb.” 

The nuclear weapons industry at Aldermaston is still very much alive. But so is the spirit of that protest fifty years ago. It lives on in a symbol born here that became an icon. 

Gerald Holtom was the artist and textile designer who created it. 

A conscientious objector during World War II, he was driven to the nuclear disarmament campaign, he said, by a feeling of despair. 

Holtom’s daughter Anna Scott, also an artist, remembers the image of her father’s despair, in the paintings of Goya. 

“He used the Goya painting of the despairing image of the person who was being shot, in Spain – I don’t know whether the despair was to do with his personal situation or whether it was to do with the world situation, and sometimes these can be muddled up, can’t they?” 

Working in his West London studio, Holtom sought to transform that muddled despair into something tidy and neat: a symbol for the campaign for nuclear disarmament, based on the Naval sign language of semaphore. 

Michael Randle was there in 1958 when Holtom explained his idea: matching the ‘N’ for nuclear & a straight up-and-down ‘D’ for ‘Disarmament,’ with a circle around it. “That’s the symbol, very simple and straightforward,” Randle recalled. “It was that explanation coupled with his vision of what the march would be like, his sketch of what the march would be like, that really sold it to us and we said, ‘Right, we will adopt that.’” 

Not without controversy. It was inevitable that Holtom’s simple three lines and a circle would bewilder at least one of the anti-nuclear campaigners. 

“He looked at it and he said, ‘What on earth were you three thinking about when you adopted that symbol? It doesn’t mean a thing and it will never catch on.’ Of course, he was thinking of the traditional things of a broken rifle, or a dove or something that would be immediately associated in people’s minds with peace, and if you’re looking at it now it’s impossible to separate it from all the history that has gone on since.” 

Impossible, almost, to imagine some history without it. 

The ‘n’ and ‘d’ of nuclear disarmament were its source, but its meaning quickly embraced a bigger cause: as a symbol for protest in the broadest sense, more specifically as a sign for peace. 

An international brand that became as familiar as a stop sign – from grim and gritty, to groovy, like a universal trademark, according to design consultant Richard Williams. 

“The clever thing about it is, it’s a mark we can all remember,” Williams said. “Because we can all draw it. You have to see it once to be able to draw it and there are very few marks that work that way. That’s why it can grow so quickly, why so many people can adopt it, because they can just scribble it. So when people were making placards they didn’t get it wrong, they knew what it was.” 

And because Gerald Holtom and the anti-nuclear campaign deliberately didn’t copyright the symbol, no one owns it – or, perhaps everyone does. 

“We believe that brands don’t belong to companies, they belong to people, they’re made in people’s minds,” Williams said. “This isn’t a brand, this is much more than that. This is a movement and an attitude of mind. 

“It’s the dream of every brand owner to get in there and own the territory, and [this] happened to do it and did it very well.” 

CND, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is still doing it: printing signs, preparing for another march. It never managed to ban the bomb. But the spirit of its symbol is still booming. 

“It’s been used as a badge against tyranny in Greece,” recalled Arrowsmith. “It’s been used as a badge against apartheid in South Africa, it’s been used just as a general peace logo, it’s been worn by U.S. U.S. troops opposing the war in Vietnam, it’s become very much an anti-war symbol, but also an anti-tyranny symbol. 

“I think it’s a good symbol because it is actually quite simple” 

Simple, as simple as the three lines and a circle, etched on the headstone of Gerald Holtom’s grave.

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