Ultimate Peace

Dear Hurt,

I've been speaking with many of you interested parents and players over the past few months about Ultimate Peace, so I wanted to share some information with the entire group. Ultimate Peace is a non-profit, youth-immersion, ultimate frisbee camp for Palestinian and Israeli kids. The week-long over-night summer camp in Akko, Israel unites these children, ages 11-15, teaching them the rules and values of ultimate. Intently apolitical, camp UP's mission is to "To build bridges of friendship, understanding and fun for youth from different social and cultural backgrounds around the world...Ultimate Peace projects will practice, model and convey our five core principles: mutual respect, friendship, non-violence, integrity, and fun."

The camp brings together around 45 American coaches and 30 local coaches/community organizers/translators with the 175 kids. Every team has a random mix of kids, drawing from three equal groups: Arab-Israeli, Jewish-Israeli, and Palestinian (West Bank), (at least) one Hebrew and one Arabic speaker, two American coaches, and two CITs. I am a counselor and it is the most amazing thing I have ever done.

I wanted to share this with Hurt because there are many opportunities for our players to get involved. The camp is always looking for youth counselors-in-training to participate. I think it would be really cool for a Hurtem to represent Hopkins Ultimate in Israel. I know the head coach and camp director very well; it would not be hard to get involved. Also, as a non-profit, much of the funding is from donations and fundraisers from teams like Hopkins. This is first time ultimate has been used primarily to promote peace and understanding.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you a little information. Please visit Ultimatepeace.org for more. Leave a comment or question and I'll get back to you, or e-mail me directly at daniel.curme@gmail.com.

Best,
-Curme

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