Dear Ultimate Community-

A year ago, I wrote in this space to introduce Ultimate Peace and to ask for money…and it worked, we made it happen – and it’s genuinely no exaggeration to say that you all played a huge part – and it was amazing. A group of American Ultimate players and coaches travelled to the Middle East and hosted a series of clinics for local youth – Palestinian and Israeli Jewish and Arab Israeli, together – to introduce them to the sport of Ultimate and the respect between players respect that’s inherent in the sport. The kids learned, they played together, they self-officiated and at the end of the day they truly were excited about getting to play more in the months to come. You can take a look at http://tinyurl.com/UPNews and http://tinyurl.com/UPPix to get the tip of the iceberg

At the same time, as we were implementing our plan, we were also recognizing how we could do better. Many of us were better at teaching Ultimate than we were at team building and helping break down cultural barriers (not surprisingly). We were incredibly successful given our naiveté…but we agreed that the next time around, we needed to do some things differently to be truly effective. And we agreed that it was absolutely critical that there be a next time: we recognized that, without appropriate follow-up, nothing we’d begun would last.

With all that in our heads, we’re planning to make this year’s Ultimate Peace even better. Instead of one-day clinics, we will be hosting a week-long camp for 120 local Jewish and Palestinian youth. The players will learn and play Ultimate, but also experience a full week with their fellow campers. We are also working on leaving behind an infrastructure of Ultimate – neighborhood/school teams, and a regional league where they can continue to play and connect.

This year’s Camp UP will be amazing, but it won’t be cheap. As tacky as it is, I’m writing this to ask you to consider lending your financial support. I know that’s not an easy thing to do, but please consider what it is that you’d be a part of. We all know that Ultimate is a unique and wonderful sport – you wouldn’t be visiting this website if you didn’t. Ultimate Peace is literally taking our sport and trying to change the world with it. Not a big part of the world, just 120 kids, but, still…isn’t that worth supporting?

Please visit our website, http://www.ultimatepeace.org/, whether or not you are considering donating money. Lastly, if you know of anyone who might be interested in or moved by this – parents, friends, etc. – please talk to them about our organization and website. Thank you so much for considering this and supporting us – financially or otherwise – in what we’re trying to do.