Day brings peaceful activities

photo by Juan Garcia

Felipe Gomez-Gomez, a Mayan spiritual leader, was the guest speaker invited to open the events of the Peace Fair. He spoke about his Guatemalan organization, which tries to uphold the rights of indigenous people. In his conclusion he stated, "as long as there is hunger, poverty, and the right of people are being violated, there will never be peace."

by Gloria Diaz
Assistant Editor

Wednesday was the perfect day to spread the message of unity and justice at the fourth annual Peace Fair, presented by the Peace Studies Department.

The day's events started with the words of Felipe Gomez-Gomez about respecting indigenous religious cultures, especially in Guatemala.

The second activity of the day was the information booths in the Quad. There was one booth that focused on the fair trade of gourmet coffee through a program called Equal Exchange. It was founded in 1986 and has worked to establish a set price for importing and exporting coffee from small coffee farmers. Starbucks has already begun selling this coffee by the pound.

"All the booths were about raising awareness, and all of them certainly did that," said Debbie Roberts, event organizer.

Seniors were given an opportunity to sign a "Graduation Pledge Alliance" that states: "I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work."

All seniors who signed this agreement will be wearing a green ribbon on graduation.

The next event, the Hunger Banquet, was held in Sneaky Park, where about fifty students participated in raising money for Oxfam, an international non-profit organization dedicated to sustainable development by providing animals to families. In contrast to last year, more students took part in the hunger banquet than faculty.

A number of students were participating in a 12-hour fast and broke their fast at the Hunger Banquet. Students signed up to sponsor those fasting. All the proceeds from the fast will go to Eshoppe, a non-profit peace group.

About eighty students attended the benefit concert in Dailey Theatre. At the concert, music professor Reed Gratz, professor Steve Kinzie and English professor William Cook who read some of his poems, all performed. As expected, the main theme of the concert was peace and justice.

"The concert was a perfect finish to the day," Roberts said.

Proceeds from the benefit concert will go to Heifer Project International, which will use the money to purchase a lamb for a family in Afghanistan. Heifer Project has offered to triple any donation received from the Peace Fair activities.

"The purpose is to form solidarity with the people who can't fast voluntarily, who have no other choice," said Elissa Salas, fast coordinator.

The day's events were sponsored by ASF, Aramark and the Peace Studies Department.

There were more students who attended the fair this year than last year.

"This event was a complete success, there were more students involved in organizing and participating," Roberts said. "It is wonderful to see the campus come together."