Our Idea

I believe that kids need someone in their lives besides their parents, someone who doesn’t have to care about them, but does anyway. Someone who can accept them as they are, and convince them that they are already worthy of respect, affection, and dignity. Someone who, while accepting their present, inspires their future.

I believe that the incandescent joy of a happy child transcends every ethnic and economic distinction humankind has invented to keep us apart.

I believe that every prejudice, every oppression, every resentment, and every misunderstanding can be cured more quickly by mixing everyone’s children together, making two teams, and letting them play than by any form of conflict resolution, court intercession, or legislation we’ve come up with so far.

That statement, excerpted from a submission to NPR's This I Believe series by a longtime camp staff member, gave birth to the idea of Peace Camp. We at Susquehannock have, for more than 100 years, created great summers for kids from all over the country and all over the world. Summers that changed each child's life, but in most cases, probably did not change the world. This summer, we're going to try to reach for a little bit more. This summer, we're rolling out a trial of what we're calling the Peace Camp Initiative - a program run, in conjunction with the organization Budo for Peace (BudoforPeace.org) that will add to the Susquehannock Family a few children of Israel, and a few children of Palestine. Athletic kids, regular kids, innocent kids.

All candidates for this program will be selected based both on their ability to get the most out of camp, their ability to teach, and learn from, the rest of the campers, and their ability to then do the most for their friends, their classmates, their parents, and their communities when they return.

We do not expect that many of these candidates will have the resources to afford airfare and camp fees, even when discounts are available.

Your generous support for the Peace Camp trial this summer will make something extraordinary happen in the war-torn lives of deserving young men and women from Israel and Palestine. They will, at Susquehannock, experience a world without bullets and bombs, refugees and resentments. They will, at Susquehannock, learn to trust and value each other as teammates, cabinmates, and friends. They will, at Susquehannock, outgrow their inherited enmity.

These young men and women will also, in turn, become leaders amongst their peers, and start sowing seeds of peace and tolerance in a land where both are scarce.

Camp Susquehannock, Aiki Extensions, and Budo for Peace hope to make 2008's life-changing Peace Camp spots available to Israeli and Palestinian kids regardless of their ability to pay. While Camp Susquehannock is, for its part, offering discounts across the board, there are still significant travel and tuition expenses the program needs to cover. The generous support of individuals, foundations, and faith communities will help the Peace Camp Initiative succeed. Please do your part today. you can download the Peace Camp flyer here.
Sponsor a Peace Camp Delegate
Full Scholarship for 4 weeks & Travel is $5000
Level
Tuition + Travel
Total
White Belt
150 + 100
250
Black Belt
500 + 250
750
Sensei
2000 + 500
2500
Shihan
4000 + 1000
5000
Secure Online Donation:

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. (MLK Jr.)

The PeaceCamp Initiative allows you to help bring peace to the middle east - one kid at a time.