I am honored and proud to send the first message of support for this special fundraising initiative ($90k for 90) for the sustainability of the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) and the Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE). Of all the rewarding experiences of six-and-a-half decades in education, I have most valued the opportunities my work has provided to build and maintain human relationships and networks of learners, teachers and activists committed to making education an “instrument of peace.”
For me, like many others, participation in the learning community of IIPE has been energizing and hope inducing, affirming a belief that peace is possible, and in collaboration and solidarity we can learn the ways to realize that possibility. The responses of those engaged in such learning to GCPE’s goal of bringing peace education into all the world’s learning settings has demonstrated that innumerable, “peacelearners” throughout the world are eager to work toward that goal and to join with others in this campaign to educate citizens everywhere to engage in the transformation of the present world order into an authentic global culture of peace.
I have been greatly blessed to have been part of the world-wide peace education movement and to have had the good fortune and joy to have shared in collaborative efforts with many of you who will read this statement of support. My hope now is that these efforts will continue into the future for this and coming generations of peacebuilders.
As the fulfillment of my hope requires a more stable financial grounding than we have had through our first 35 years as an active network of collaborative peacelearning, we are undertaking our first major fundraising campaign, the success of which would be the most wonderful possible 90th birthday present.
We will engage in the campaign during 9 months of the academic year 2018-2019 in three cycles of three months, September through November, January through March, and April through mid June. I am very happy to announce that we have in hand now an initial gift and pledge. Dolly Holland has sought to be the first of a possible 90 people each contributing $1,000 with her gift of that amount, and I am pledging an equivalent sum with $90 per month (for the rest of my life, so a long one would be to the advantage of the peace education movement) We welcome gifts and pledges of any amount and over any period of time.
I am profoundly grateful to Tony Jenkins, Janet Gerson and Dale Snauwaert for carrying forth this work, and for this particular effort to make it sustainable.
My thanks to all of you in this global network for all the contributions of so many kinds you have made to our common efforts and for the hope and inspiration your work has contributed to my nine decades of a life of many blessings.
Peace and Love,
Betty
September 1, 2018
$90k for 90!
A 9-month campaign to help sustain the Global Campaign for Peace Education & International Institute on Peace Education
Betty Reardon has entered her 90th year of life – officially turning 90 next June! We invite you to help us celebrate and honor Betty by joining our special “$90k for 90,” 9-month fundraising campaign. With your help, our goal is to raise $90,000 over the next 9-months, culminating in a special birthday celebration in June 2019. The $90k target assures the sustainability of the GCPE & IIPE: Betty’s legacy work in peace education.
*Learn more about the campaign here!