IIPT March 2018 Special Edition

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Launches Year-Long Project Dedicating IIPT River Front Peace Promenade

From the IIPT archive. This special edition was first published as an IIPT e-Newsletter on iipt.org in March 2018. It is reproduced here with its original photographs; event details are as they stood at the time.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one of the first state capitals of the 50 United States, has embarked on a year-long project engaging more than 40 diverse civic organizations and 260 citizens in the dedication of its River Front Park as an IIPT Peace Promenade. The Harrisburg Peace Promenade is co-chaired by Rep. Patty Kim, 103rd Legislative District, and Jeff Haste, President of the Dauphin County Commissioners.

The project utilizes Riverfront Park as a common ground, and links commemorations and interpretive programs for eight public monuments along the six-acre linear park which exemplify the city’s journey towards tolerance, freedom and peaceful co-existence. The commemoration monuments allow neighbors, visitors, and guests who frequent the Susquehanna River walkway to pause and reflect on historic stewardship as well as the current challenges for accomplishing peace and peaceful co-existence in Harrisburg. A self-guided walking tour map has been created for host families from across the city.

A series of visits and events were held this past week at venues including the Science and Technology High School, Harrisburg University, the Dauphin County Administration Building, the Martin Luther King Municipal Building, Midtown Scholar Book Store, and Harrisburg Mid-Town Arts Center. The centerpiece of the events was a reception at the Hilton Harrisburg Hotel with guests of honor Mrs. Naomi King, wife of A.D. King, brother of Martin Luther King; Dr. Babs Onabanjo, President and CEO of the A.D. King Foundation; and Dr. Louis D’Amore, Founder and President, International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT).

Orchestrating the project as a volunteer is Mr. Lenwood Sloan, well known across the U.S. as a catalytic agent, animator, and facilitator of cultural and heritage programs. For the past 40 years, Mr. Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance in both the public and private sector. Lenwood has been involved in film, cultural, heritage and recreational initiatives in Pennsylvania, including collaboration with the National Park Service on the 50-site “Underground Railroad Trail”, for which he received the Pennsylvania “Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award”, and in 2011 the Pennsylvania Civil War Trails, for which he won the Historical Society’s Innovation Award.

Exemplars

The reception event also honored Exemplars for their contribution to Harrisburg.

Events Planned for the Year-Long Project

• Historic Harrisburg Association, 26 March: “A Stewardship Forum on Women and War”
• Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, 9 April: Holocaust Event, Dialogue: Remembrance and Reaffirmation
• Physicians for Social Responsibility, 27 April: Tree Plantings
• St. Stephen’s Episcopal Cathedral, 5 May: Dialogue: Harrisburg 1860–1960
• Susquehanna Arts Museum, June–July (multiple events): Art Immersion Workshops, “Raising the Colors of Peace”
• Olewine Public Library, 11–13 July 2018: Art Immersion Workshops, “Making Your Own Peace Pole”
• Market Square Presbyterian Church, 5 August: Hiroshima Event
• Governor’s Mansion, 1 September: Dialogue: Citizenship and a Blueprint for Seven Generations
• Harrisburg University, 7 September 2018: Seven Generations Town Hall
• Dauphin County Library, Front and Walnut, 10 October: Monuments
• Grace United Methodist Church, 11 November: Veterans Day 2018

A wreath-laying event at each of the eight monument sites is supported by a Civic Dialogue in the adjacent neighborhood and an anchor arts immersion experience.

IIPT Global Peace Parks Project

As part of its 30th Anniversary Year events, IIPT has launched a “Global Peace Parks Project” with a goal of 2,000 Peace Parks circling the earth by 11 November 2018, the Centenary of the end of World War I and its theme “No More War”. The project builds on the foundations of IIPT’s Peace Parks across Canada Project in 1992, commemorating Canada’s 125th birthday as a nation. That project resulted in 350 cities and towns dedicating a park to peace and was said to be the most significant of more than 25,000 Canada 125 Projects.

Partnering with IIPT on the project is United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the united voice and world advocate of democratic local self-government, with a global network of cities, local and regional governments representing 70% of the world population. UCLG goals include contributing to the achievement of the SDGs, the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the New Urban Agenda for Sustainable Urban Development.

The objectives of the IIPT Global Peace Parks are to nurture the growth of peace and understanding at home and throughout the world; enhance awareness of a community’s commitment to peace and a healthy environment; create common ground for the community to come together in celebration of their nation’s people, land and heritage, and the common future of all humankind; and reflect on our connectedness to one another as a Global Family and to our common home, planet Earth.