Thank You to all who made our Annual Dinner and Program with Pietro Ameglio on October 9 a big success!
We are especially grateful to our hosts, sponsors and supporters, including Robert and Carolyn Levering, Anne Rosenzweig, Joe Wampler, Catherine Steele. Markley Morris, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom- Santa Cruz Branch, United Services Agency, United Methodists of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County Community Coalition to Overcome Racism (SCCCCOR), Katharina Harlow, Teetle and Ben Clawson, Robert DeFreitas and Gigo de Silvas, David Foster, Don Lane and Mary Howe, Kris Kennedy, Chris and Robert Lyons, Paul Ortiz and Sheila Payne, Gary and Marilyn Patton, Barbara Riverwoman, Marilyn Robertson, Ken Thomas and Elizabeth Schilling, Jane Yett, NAACP-Santa Cruz Branch, Maria Elena de la Garza/ Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County
SPECIAL THANKS to Chef Eileen Balian, Pietro Ameglio, Phil McManus, Cynthia Gutierrez, Leslie Lopez, Peace United Church of Christ, Liz Klotz-Chamberlin and The Flower Garden Wedding Florist, Kris Kennedy, Joe Williams, Dan Spelce, Michael Hernandez, Grant Erickson
A BIG THANK YOU to our BUSINESS SUPPORTERS: Mitchell Page, Nickelodeon Theaters, Lundberg Studios, Cafe Gratitude, India Joze, Malabar/Asian Rose, Manuel’s Restaurant, Pacific Coffee Roasting Company, Zameen Mediterranean Cuisine, Monarch Cove Inn, Play It Again Sports, Land of the Medicine Buddha, Soif Wine Bar, Rivendell, Discretion Brewery, New Camaldoli Hermitage, Sorensen’s Resort, Darling House Bed & Breakfast, Star of Siam, El Teatro Campesino, Christokiffer Designs, Staff of Life, Trader Joes, Beckmann’s Bakery, Kelly’s Bakery, The Buttery, Pacific Cookie Company, Metavinyl Records, Native Revival Nursery, Staff of Life, Martinelli’s, Discretion Brewery, Oku Inc.
Thank You to all of our terrific Annual Dinner Volunteers: Alex Jackson, Ann Docken, Robert DeFreitas, Gigo de Silvas, Steve Schnaar, Alexander Gaguine, Willow Katz, Pablo Orozco-Castro, Jean Piraino, Mike Young, Kathleen Eschen-Pipes, Cinda Mefferd, Erick Cruz, Isaac Collins, Monica Larenas, Robby Labovitz, Paula LeRoy, Stephanie Trujillo, Chris Lyons, Alain Desouches, Jay Visbal, Simone Renee, Karen Kaplan, Claire Bruning, Gregory Eaton, Joan Marsh, Cinthya Rosario and all Staff, Steering Committee members.
Pietro Ameglio is one of the most important teachers and practitioners of active nonviolence in Latin America today. He cofounded the Mexican Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) in 2011 in response to the spiraling toll of killed and disappeared persons in the so-called “war on drugs.” He is author of “Gandhi and Civil Disobedience: Mexico Today,” served as Chair of the Humanities Department at La Salle University in Cuernavaca, and holds Special Chairs in Peace Culture and Nonviolent Civil Resistance in the School of Philosophy and Literature at the National Autonomous University in Mexico City. He received the El Hibri Peace Education Prize in 2014.
The Scott Kennedy Drawing the Line Award was presented to to gardeners of the Beach Flats garden and Save the Beach Flats Garden Coalition organizers. For over 23 years, the garden has provided a space where local residents can grow food, teach their children agroecological traditions from Mexico, El Salvador, and other places, and congregate in a lush oasis in the Beach Flats community. Now, the garden faces closure from Seaside Company. The gardeners have decided to demand that the garden remains a vital green-space owned by the people who work the land. Together with community members organizing in solidarity, the gardeners are currently strategizing to gain wide support for this effort.
Proceeds from the Dinner support our ongoing Resource Center for Nonviolence programs. We appreciate your support!