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.

Violence in Israel and Gaza is back in the news again. The conflict seems endless, and it’s left me feeling painfully aware of the futility of violence to resolve the tensions.

When I was fourteen, I was drawn to Ultimate first by its unique ideas about sportsmanship. I play at a very different level today, but I find it’s still true: by playing Ultimate, I’ve learned respect my opponent more deeply. It may not always work perfectly but, in the end, Ultimate brings me together with my opponent.

See the connection?

In the past year, a group of Ultimate players—men and women on clubs from across the country—have formed an organization called Ultimate Peace. In April, we will be traveling to Israel to run an Ultimate clinic for disadvantaged youth from Palestinian and Israel. We’ll be teaching them to play Ultimate, helping to organize and coach cross-cultural teams at a tournament during our stay, and traveling back to their communities to promote the growth of the sport and its ideals.

Will it fix the Middle East? It would be naïve to think so. But, to me, it is important to do something in the world. I only have the skills that I have—and so we are trying to do our little piece, applying our knowledge and love of Ultimate to the conflict.

This is, as you might have guessed, an attempt to raise money—the clinic and the trip will be expensive, and we’re trying to defray the costs before April. But if you’re reading this blog, it’s because you believe that Ultimate is special and that makes you our target audience.

If you are able to support us financially, you can do so at UltimatePeace.org/Donate. We are relying on grassroots support to make this trip possible; any level of donation makes a difference for our trip. Or, if you’d just like to learn more, please visit our website at UltimatePeace.org.

If you’re still not convinced, you’ll find a video below that was produced by the Peres Center for Peace (our partner in organizing the clinics). It’s a little slow to begin with, and it uses soccer instead of Ultimate to make the point, but just think about the next one highlighting Ultimate.