I’ve had a few people asking some good questions about Peace Camp. I’ll try to address these briefly, but I am available to talk about any of this, or other inquiries you may have, with you in person.

Peace Camp developed out of a serendipitous interaction I had with Donna Barnes, an 80-something  year old friend who told me of her dream to offer a camp that gives children the tools to recognize and address prejudice and racism when they encounter it. After hearing Donna’s story and her passion, I realized our Summer Camp may be a perfect partner to develop this dream of hers, as well as support the Iowa Annual Conference’s desire to be a fully antiracist Conference. On a personal note, these are skills I desire my son to have as well, so he will be attending Peace Camp next week. After talking to Becca and Julie about this possibility, we realized Peace Camp could be a good fit for one of the weeks of our Summer Camp programming.

Since then, we have developed a broad team of community leaders, including pastors (active and retired), interested citizens, one school board member, educators, as well as support from Advocates for Social Justice.

To build the program, a small group of leaders, including Becca Nims, received training from an educational non-profit in Durham, North Carolina called WE ARE. This training and their curriculum for a week-long summer camp became the basis for Peace Camp. The curriculum is a literacy-based program, using children’s books to teach the antiracist content and themes in an age-appropriate manner. Each family will receive a copy of the books read each day at Peace Camp, meaning the children will add quality books to their personal collections. Funding has come from various individuals, churches, and organizations, and this has allowed us to offer Peace Camp free of charge for all the children, while still paying our staff and supply costs.

This is an opportunity for us to work with young learners in a fun environment to prepare them to be good neighbors for the rest of their lives. If you’d like to read more about Peace Camp, you can do so here: https://www.thegazette.com/k/area-children-to-learn-anti-racism-skills-at-nationally-recognized-peace-camp-program/