Ben & Jerry's Recognizes Aaron Voldman, Executive Director of Student Peace Alliance, as a Peace Pioneer
Aaron Voldman, Executive Director of the Student Peace Alliance (SPA) and a member of the Board of Directors of The Peace Alliance, was one of two nationwide winners of Ben & Jerry's "Peace Pioneer" contest. The announcement was made on May 27, 2008 at its New York City Times Square Scoop Shop. The ceremony was part of Ben & Jerry's joint effort with The Lennon Estate and Peace One Day, a non-profit organization focused on raising global awareness of the UN day of global ceasefire and non-violence on September 21st annually.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, award-winning actress and demonstrated peace activist, Jeremy Gilley, founder of Peace One Day and director/producer/writer of the Cannes-debuted film, "The Day After Peace," and Roy Kerwood, original photographer from Lennon's 1969 Montreal Bed-in, were on-site at the Ben & Jerry's Times Square Scoop Shop to launch a John Lennon tribute flavor, "Imagine Whirled Peace," and announce a new social mission partnership with Peace One Day.
Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield read a statement from Yoko Ono expressing her continued support and vision for the campaign: "Make peace - a dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality."
To further its peace-focused campaign, Ben & Jerry's held a nationwide search to identify modern-day peace activists who embody the values set forth by Lennon through their work to create positive change in the world.
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jerry Greenfield presented the winners with a $10,000 donation from Ben & Jerry's to:
* Aaron Voldman, a 21-year-old Brandeis University student and co-founder of the Student Peace Alliance - a national student and youth movement for a culture and Department of Peace and Nonviolence. Since its founding in March 2006, SPA has quickly grown to include 100 chapters on high school and college campuses around the country; and
* Robert Kent, founder of the Peace Camp Initiative - a program that provides summer camp experiences for war-torn children from Israel and Palestine.
World peace is everybody's job, and each one of us can work to educate ourselves, our communities, and our members of Congress about the power of nonviolent conflict resolution and the importance of making the reduction and prevention of violence a national-and global-priority.
The event highlighted Ben & Jerry's John Lennon-inspired Imagine Whirled Peace ice cream and included a modern-day "Peace Bed-In" marking the 39th anniversary of the day John Lennon and Yoko Ono hosted a "Bed-in For Peace." Through that legendary event, Lennon and Ono used their celebrity-for-good to promote world harmony, and inspired a generation to think about peace during a critical time of war.
In accepting the award, Aaron said, "I certainly agree with John Lennon that we must imagine world peace, and the Student Peace Alliance is committed to making our visions of peace a reality. Violence -- in our streets, in our schools, and around the globe -- continues to challenge the health and well-being of this generation. For me, the most tragic aspect of violence is that most of it is unnecessary. We have the skills right now to effectively resolve conflict before it erupts into violence, and yet we continue to mostly respond after it occurs.
"We need to rethink that and move in a direction where we work proactively to reduce and prevent violence from happening in the first place," he continued. "By creating a cabinet-level U.S. Department of Peace, we as a country will make peacebuilding a national priority.
"Thousands of people across the country are excited about this smart, strategic, and sensible approach. We invite you to join us. Thank you Ben & Jerry's for helping us build this movement to make peace as American as ice cream and apple pie."
http://www.studentpeacealliance.org/
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