The Community Peace Fair

Sorry all this isn't quite timely; but then again, one saturday out of the year shouldn't be the max to do things in the name of peace.

without further adieu:

Saturday September 27 2003, Court Street saw itself on strike for peace. It was for a few windy hours an active participant in Rochester’s first ever Community Peace Fair; and by active one could say inactive; in regards to personal or public transportation.

The Peace Fair was first perceived as a fund-raising event by the Peaceworks of Greater- Rochester which during development grew to an event consisting of one closed section of street, one transportable stage, a display of automobiles by the PT Cruiser club, the Raging Grannies, the Coupe De Ville band and approximately 40 non-profit organizations working for peace in the community.

“The goal was to bring agencies together to talk,” said David Koon an executive director of the Rochester Peaceworks, “but the real goal was to bring people in to volunteer at all the agencies that are working for peace in their community.

The bulk of the fair was in booth form, allowing area non-profit organizations a chance to reach the public and let it’s members see what kind of chances there are for them to get involved.

“The idea was, we want people to get involved in the various ways of community enhancement,” said John Rhoades, the director of the Peace Studies Program at Saint John Fisher College, “we felt that It would be great to have the street fair for all the groups that do that, and who want people to know about them; so that people could go around and find out on their own what it is they might be interested in.

Among those with booths were organizations ranging from; the Rochester Buddhist Peace Fellowship; Rochester Cares, an organization dedicated to involving volunteers with making a difference in their community; and the Finger Lakes Restorative Justice Center, an organization that works to bring find just resolutions to criminals their victims and their communities.

Community Peace Fair – “a lot of networking went on here today”- Dave Koon
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