Dear Readers!
Happy Hanuka, Happy Kwanzaa, and Merry Christmas!
At this Solstice time-of-year, filled with refection and looking to the future, we’d love your feedback.
What from Peace House has resonated with your values and concerns this year? Uncle Food’s Diner? Our website? Special programs? Reliable news and calendar feeds?
We hope that you have found our services useful this year.
Our gift to you is one you have been receiving all year long!
Our editors keep a vigil on current events that affect your lives. Many volunteer hours go into this effort, supplying you with valuable content. We are celebrating the end of a successful year working on your behalf, with kudos to our staff and volunteers.
Your Peace House Editors keep a constant vigil over sudden changes and urgent actions. We compile a variety of news and social change-related events fifty-two weeks out of the year for you, all in one place! You may not always have time to read them, but we are here when you do
Our gift to you going forward now is this:
A promise to continue providing the regular and reliable information you look for from us about social justice, human and civil rights, climate justice, immigration and much more.
You will continue to receive often critical information in a concentrated form when you need it. We do not charge for this. We are happy to recognize your work and concerns as they connect with ours. Think about that!
- We know we send out a lot of material! Think about how amazing that is for a small, semi-rural community. We give you up-dates on actions you can take to affect change for the good: sudden ways you can be immediately effective in a crisis.
We are your hub for news that tells you what is going on and when through
- Bi-monthly Calendar of Events
- Bi-monthly “Take Action” releases
- Urgent action alerts about fire or the emergency shelters or the loss of a treasured community member
Your continuing financial support is what makes this possible.
It makes it possible for us to keep giving back to you!
Please keep us in mind at this time of giving, knowing that your gifts will come back to you through our on-line information, our educational programs, and through Uncle Food’s Diner feeding the food-insecure.
We look forward to working with you and on your behalf in the days ahead.
On behalf of our volunteers, our Editorial Team, and our staff, do enjoy these holidays
with family, friends and community. You are the reason we are here.
We offer blessings of Light and Peace,
Elizabeth V. Hallett
Executive Director, Peace House
ASHLAND COUNCIL LOCKS IN ITS RESIDENTS TO JAIL-ONLY TAX, NO MATTER HOW THEY VOTE
Continuing reading at https://peacehouse.net/grandmother-agnes-baker-pilgrim-has-passed-from-this-world-at-the-age-of-ninety-five/
For all questions or offers of help, please contact Avram at 541 220-7307
UPDATE as of 11/28:
Due to this week’s freezing and stormy weather, there are needs and changes for both the Emergency Warming Shelter and Community Peace Meal Thanksgiving Dinner.
Thursday, November 28 THANKSGIVING
Breakfast is needed. Can anyone help with breakfast for 25 or more people?
Night shelter ends at 8 a.m.Day shelter begins as long as there are volunteers to staff it.
Thanksgiving Community Peace Meal has been moved and will NOT be in Pioneer hall but has been relocated to the Bellview Grange this year.
Night shelter begins at 7 p.m. Volunteers needed.
Friday morning breakfast is needed.
Friday, November 29
7 p.m. shelter in Ashland library. We can open at 5 p.m. if we have volunteers to staff it.Saturday morning breakfast is needed.
If you can help with any of the tasks mentioned above, call Jason Houk at 541 841 8341 to volunteer or show up at the Bellview Grange today to drop off donations, or make arrangements to volunteer.
Thank you.
Justice & Witness Ministry Team
UCC Ashland
Avram is in charge of day shifts and transportation.
For full information, and continuing updates of information: https://peacehouse.net/winter-shelter-from-freezing-weather/
View OUR PEACE HOUSE WORK at https://peacehouse.net/overview-of-peace-house-work-2019/
Here is one of our programs:
Compassion and Social Justice Programs
Uncle Food’s Diner: We are in our 27th year responding to hunger and food insecurity. Together with Chef Maren Faye and 35 Volunteers, we served 8500 hot meals in the past year. Our Tuesday meal collaboration with the Methodist Church is a platform for many services for those in need: La Clinica’s Medical and Dental Mobile Unit; OHRA Shower Trailer; OHSU Nurses Without Borders Foot Clinic; the Maslow Foundation and Veterans’ Association Outreach; free clothing and hygiene supplies.
Just one of the things Peace House does – but, read about the full work we do for justice with compassion – we walk the talk to help create the road to peace.
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Our Peace House Peacemaker Awards Dinner on Friday, November 15 was attended by over 175 people – thank you all! Click on below box: Reflections by our Peace House Director Elizabeth Hallett, a wonderful write up, published in the Tidings, by one of the attendees of the dinner and one of the founders of Peace House, Dot Fisher-Smith. Thank you Dot, we appreciate you greatly! Photos of the event taken by Allen Hallmark follow – thank you Allen! Also view our 2019 Peacemaker Awards Dinner Booklet https://peacehouse.net/2019-peacemaker-awards-dinner-booklet/
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Call Governor Brown to end the Jordan Cove fracked gas project
10 Reasons Why Jackson County’s Proposed New Tax to Triple Jail Capacity Will Do More Harm Than Good
Our Peace House event on Friday, November 15 was attended by over 175 people – thank you all! Below is a wonderful write up, published in the Tidings, by one of the attendees of the dinner and one of the founders of Peace House. Thank you Dot, we appreciate you greatly! Photos of the event taken by Allen Hallmark follow – thank you Allen!
Dear Editor,
Peace House held its annual dinner and awards ceremony Friday night (11/15) at the Ashland Hills Inn. As one of the founders of Peace House 37 years ago, looking around the packed ballroom, I felt somewhat like the ancient matriarch at an enormous family gathering, very proud indeed of what a small group of passionately concerned citizens had set in motion so long ago, when the threat of nuclear annihilation seemed imminent, the need for non-violent education and action imperative.
Over the years, Peace House has broadened its scope and continues (perhaps too quietly) to be a strong force for a variety of causes and groups beyond what we envisioned at the beginning. A beautifully designed Program booklet for the annual event describes in detail the impressive number of projects flourishing under the Peace House umbrella.
I’m expressing my gratitude publicly to Elizabeth Hallett, the board, staff and volunteers who carry on this vital, heartening work, and I encouraging readers to email:info@peacehouse.net to receive the bi-weekly calendar of peace and justice events, information and volunteer options. Being part of the Peace House Community offers solace and hope in an ever increasingly fragmented, divisive, distrustful society.
Sincerely,
Dot Fisher-Smith
945 Oak St.
Ashland
541-625-3300
“Tending the Sacred: Resiliency in Challenging Times”
2019 National Peacemaker Awardees
Peace House 2019 National Awardees
Our keynote speakers, Dr. Larry Ward and Dr. Peggy Rowe-Ward, are senior dharma teachers and co-founders of the Lotus Institute. They were ordained and married by peace activist and Zen Master Tich Nhat Hanh. Deeply inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Tich Naht Hanh, they have committed their lives to nonviolent social change, healing and transformation at all levels, from individuals and communities to the global scale. Peggy and Larry transmit a rare combination of academic, lived and embodied wisdom that helps actualize healing for self and community.
Their background in Buddhist background in Buddhist practice informs their work nationally and internationally, having worked in over twenty countries. Their skilled teachings encompass psychology, education, trauma and resiliency trainings, and social justice awareness, creating a powerful dynamic for healing and change. Peggy and Larry are coauthors of the book, “Love’s Garden: A Guide to Mindful Relationships.”
Local Awardees
David West, Director Emeritus, Native American Studies, SOU
David West is the adopted son of Grandmother Agnes Pilgrim connecting him to the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and the Takilma Band, and is en- trusted to speak for her when she is unavailable. A marvelous storyteller, David West is well known here and elsewhere as a messenger of Native American wisdom. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatami Nation. David is the Emeritus Director of Native American Studies at SOU. His advocacy for Native American education is evidenced by the ongoing success of the unique Konaway Nika Tillicum, an SOU residential summer academy for Native American youth. He holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Oregon and an M.A. in Community Psychology from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. David promotes respect for the Earth and all its creatures, as a foundation for real peace—a basic tenant of Native American spirituality and wisdom.
Vision Quilt, Cathy DeForest and son Derek Pyle: Empowering communities through art and inclusive dialogue.
Cathy DeForest, her son Derek and a huge number of volunteers are working to create gun violence awareness and emotional healing from the trauma of gun injuries and deaths in our culture. They have taken their project beyond the Rogue Valley into several other parts of the country. Creating a national network of sup- porters to cultivate compassionate, nonviolent change, they help to amplify the voices of under-served youth and survivors. People ages 4 to 96 have made Vision Quilt panels, exhibited across the country. Vision Quilt recently received a nationally prized Innovation Grant for the work they are doing in California’s East Bay, with Lighthouse Community Charter School. Their program, “Addressing Gun Violence: Creating Visionaries, Storytellers, and Community Activists” is a production-centered, youth-led initiative which grew out of a direct request from Lighthouse students. Cathy DeForest earned her Ph.D. in Organization Development and Systems Change. Vision Quilt is based on collaboration with schools, health care systems and violence prevention.
