Director: Peace Camp can make ‘immeasurable impact’ on participants

WILKES-BARRE — Peace Camp Director Joli Mattia said all children can benefit from a week of making new friends, learning about cultures that might be different from their own, and developing skills to resolve conflicts peacefully.

That is what The Peace Center’s Peace Camp is all about.

“Peace Camp can be an invaluable and life changing experience for a child,”Mattia said. “This camp has impacted hundreds of lives over the last 25-plus years that it has been offered to children in the Wyoming Valley.”

As a mom and a teacher, Mattia said she believes the impact Peace Camp can make on a child is immeasurable.

“We live in a world where children can easily access and, unfortunately sometimes witness, negative actions,” Mattia said. “Peaceful problem-solving and conflict-resolution are at the heart of Peace Camp’s approach. Finding common ground and learning empathy allows children to pause, reflect, and realize that people are more alike than different.”

Scholarships available

Mattia said she and the Peace Center organization would like to promote the availability of spots and scholarships for ​Peace Camp 2021, which will take place from June 21 to June 25, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, at First Presbyterian Church, located at 97 South Franklin St. in Wilkes-Barre.

Mattia said children entering kindergarten through 8th grade are welcome to participate.

She said although the standard camp fee is $125 per child, generous scholarships, particularly two — North Branch Friends Meeting Group, who donated a very large sum of money; and a scholarship donation from the Wilkes-Barre Kiwanis president — are available for families who would like their child(ren) to attend, but for whom the full fee would be a burden.

“We are especially committed to making Peace Camp available to children in those families,” Mattia said.

Mattia said Peace Camp activities include:

• Arts and Crafts Projects

• Communication Strategies

• Games for a Healthy Body, Mind and Spirit

• Yoga — Meditation — Music Making

• Peer Mediation and Community-Building Skills

• Sustainability and Gardens

For most activities, Mattia said children will be divided into age groups (K through 3rd grade and 4th through 8th grade). Space is limited to 20 children in each group.

Two main themes

Mattia said this year camp has two main themes:

• “Peace through Art,” where the campers will be empowered to choose from a variety of art projects and use creativity to make a difference in the lives of others (i.e., Kindness Rocks, Art Poetry, Cards for Kids, Caring Kids Snack Bags).

• “Peace through People,” where campers will be challenged to learn to work together, build relationships, and advocate in productive ways. Some of the goals of the Peace through People theme are for kids to believe they should be proud of the person they are, learn positive ways of problem solving, and have the capacity to show empathy toward those who are hurting or marginalized in any way.

Additionally, Mattia said campers will be taught mindfulness exercises and have fun with bonding activities such as swimming and spending time in the park.

Margarita Rose, of the Peace and Justice Center, said a Mattia suggested, children are often exposed to negative actions these days, and they also hear a great deal of harmful language and attitudes.

“I see it in the food store and in my own neighborhood,” Rose said. “Children deserve to have access to language that is loving and positive; they have a right to a caring environment that brings out their own goodness and care for others.”

Rose said that while some might have traveled abroad already in their young lives, others have not had the chance to see the world beyond the Wyoming Valley, or even to encounter aspects of cultures right in their own community.

“Peace Camp 2021 will offer our future leaders a chance to enrich their lives and those of their families through experiences of art, culture and language,” Rose said. “Their curiosity, generosity, and kindness make us hopeful for the future.”

Elly Miller, Peace Center board member, said she will be at the Peace Camp on Tuesday morning of that week to teach the campers how to write “shalom” (peace) in Hebrew; and, on Friday, she will tell the story of “The Traveling Peace Kimono” for the purpose of counteracting the recent rise in Asian-American bigotry.

For more information on Peace Camp, Mattia said questions can be E-mailed to: [email protected].

Mattia said volunteers are also welcome.

More about The Peace Center

The Annual Peace Awards Dinner will take place on International Day of Peace, 2021 — Tuesday, Sept. 21 — at Apple Tree Terrace at Newberry Estates in Dallas, starting at 5:30 p.m.

Elly Miller, a member of The Peace Center Board of Directors, said recipients of both the 2020 and 2021 awards will be honored at that dinner. Miller said more details will be available by mid July.

The Peace Center will also sponsor the 2021 Barbara Sabol Lecture that will feature Ron Jones, who will speak about Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Poor People’s Campaign in the 1960s. The tentative date for the event is Oct. 26 at a location to be determined.

The Interfaith Resource Center for Peace and Justice is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational peace and justice organization founded in 1988. Membership is $35 per year.

Mailing address:

57 North Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701

E-Mail: [email protected]

Mission:

The Peace and Justice Center is an interfaith organization created to educate groups and individuals in peaceful ways of resolving conflict, to nurture dialogue among diverse groups, and to be a partner in the ongoing struggle for human rights and a just World.

Vision

To be known as the primary resource to which the community can turn for engaging with peace and justice issues.

”We are about to celebrate 30 years of advocating among our neighbors in Northeastern Pennsylvania for a more just and peaceful world,” Miller said. “During the past year, we sponsored public lectures and rallies for peace, held our annual dinner honoring peacemakers and our peace camp for children, and, in one of our more extensive projects, collaborated with several colleges and places of worship to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the American Friends Service Committee.”

Miller said The Peace Center has invited members of the community to tell of their experiences confronting discrimination and to share with one another creative ways to “wage peace.”

She said the center also partnered with students from English and communications classes to get the center’s message out on social media and blog sites.

“Our online presence continues to grow and improve,” she said.