BY ROBERT K. MATTHEWS and JR.

In print | March 30, 2006

Tomorrow will kick off the first ever Tri-Co Peace Week, launched by Swarthmore’s Save R US and students at Swarthmore, Haverford and Bryn Mawr. After Peace Week first occurred at Swarthmore last year, planners of the event decided expand the event to nearby colleges in the Tri-Co consortium.

Peace Week itself is actually the brainchild of Brandon Lee Wolff ’08, who founded Save R US International in response to the Columbine massacre. The first “official” Peace Week occurred in April of 2005 at Swarthmore College.

Wolff said introducing Peace Week to schools besides Swarthmore for this year got more people involved overall. “It was hard at the beginning, but we overcame the obstacles. People at Bryn Mawr and Haverford became extremely involved,” Wolff said. "It is good because it is not just happening at all three colleges, but people from all three colleges are involved in the events. For example, the Tri-Co faculty panel set for Tuesday, April 4, will feature professors from each of the three colleges.

Soraya Lakhani ’09 said working with students from outside of Swarthmore complicated Peace Week planning. “Planning [Peace Week] was hard at first because it was expanded to be a Tri-Co event,” she said. “Transportation and event locations were initially a problem, but it all came together pretty easily in the end because there were active members at each school.”

A variety of creative events are incorporated into the week. Erin Heaney ’09, one of the Swarthmore organizers, is in charge of “Peace at Paces.” “It will be a way for students to get their hands dirty by taking action to help foster peace,” she said. “Plus there will be good music and free cookies!”

Besides specific events scheduled for each day, there are a few ongoing activities that will last the whole week. “The Tri-co Music and Dance Jamboree and the food drive competition over the course of the week will be really cool,” Lakhani said.

Wolff said this year’s Peace Week will focus on an action component in addition to fostering violence awareness. “Peace Week has always been the awareness program of Save R US,” he said. “The main focus is raising awareness about violence not only locally but globally, but this year we are beginning to focus more on action as well.”

Wolff went on to describe the “Walk for Peace” that will take place at Haverford this Sunday. “There will be action stations set up so that people on the walk can stop and participate in things such as painting a peace mural or signing a letter or petition,” he said. “It’s all about awareness and action. We want people to be proactive. We want them to realize that there is violence not only locally, but globally, and we want them to know that they can do more than just acknowledge it—they can actually do something about it.”

Lakhani said the week first and foremost intends to publicize and promote peace. “Generally, we are hoping for this to be a time for people to think and talk about peace. We want to foster a general sense of peace,” she said. “It is good to step back and thing about what peace is and what it means to us. There are many more groups on campus that advertise peace, and they are very specific. We are much more general.”

Wolff praised Peace Week’s ability to unite the three campuses of Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore. “This Peace Week is also about bringing together all three of the colleges,” he said. “There aren’t many events that take place at all three schools, especially at the same time. Beyond that, we are also bringing in a combination of students and faculty from all three schools, members of the community, school groups, community groups and religious groups. What is really great is that we are now not only involving the greater Swarthmore community, but the greater Tri-Co community.”

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