Jennifer Bohn, OCPS Teacher of the Year, attended this year's National Service Learning Conference in Minneapolis, MN. She sold copies of her students' book, "Everyone Has a Story to Tell" at the conference bookstore. Ms. Bohn and the Evans High School Beta Club students received a mini-grant from the Service Learning Council last year to conduct a project on homelessness. Her students interviewed the homeless at the Coalition for the Homeless in Orlando, and wrote this moving book that is for sale on Amazon!
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the Keynote speaker at the conference. Archbishop Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 in recognition of his work in opposing apartheid and his promotion of social justice in South Africa. In 1994 following the end of Apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu was given the role of Chairman of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated apartheid-era human rights violations and crimes.
The archbishop belongs to a prestigious group, The Elders, which was formed in July 2007 to tackle some of the world's most pressing problems including hunger, poverty, conflict, and global warming. Members of The Elders include Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa; former U.S. President Jimmy Carter; Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, Mohammed Yunus, the Nobel laureate and founder of the Green Bank in Bangladesh; and former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Desmond Tutu serves as one of the foremost moral voices in the world today and is a strong proponent for world peace. Archbishop Tutu, small in stature, but big in heart, stood on a box at the podium to address the packed auditorium. He is a profound speaker. He had the crowd moved to tears, and roaring with laughter. He radiates love, oneness, and compassion for mankind.
Archbishop Tutu spoke of how the young people of America have been in the forefront in protesting war, apartheid, and promoting social justice causes. He called upon the hundreds of students in the audience saying that they could change the world, and they were "youth for a change" which was the theme of the conference and the theme of his speech. He said:
"You young people are idealists. You dream dreams. Dream with me my dream. Dream with me my dream of a new kind of world. For us to eradicate poverty. It is possible. You dream of a world when war is no more. Why do we spend billions on instruments of destruction when we could ensure that children, children everywhere in the world, could have clean water to drink, could have a decent home, could have good health care, could have a good education? Please, please, please, please help me, help me to realize my dream."
Mrs. Doromal received the Spirit of Service Award from the Corporation for National and Community Service Learn and Serve America. She was nominated by Joe Follman, Executive Director of Florida learn and Serve. The CNCS said in the award program, “True to Wendy’s belief that service-learning is a vehicle for social justice, the students’ projects frequently focus on helping the poor, needy, homeless, and disenfranchised. Wendy is a true servant leader.”
When presenting the award to Wendy, David Eisner, Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service, told the audience that S. 2739, the bill Wendy has been pushing to pass for over a decade, had passed in the Senate earlier that day. When signed into law by President Bush, Title VII of S.2739 will extend U.S. immigration laws to the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
After Archbishop Tutu spoke, Mrs. Doromal was called to join him on stage along with other award winners. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mrs. Doromal hugged and he expressed congratulations.
Naomi Tutu, daughter of Desmond Tutu spoke at a breakfast for award winners and at a reflective workshop after her father's speech.
Archbishop Tutu spoke in the evening for a second time. This time he stood out even more dressed in a bright fuchsia colored robe and skull cap. As in his morning lecture, he was received with a standing ovation, and exited the stage to thunderous applause and another standing ovation.
His evening lecture was entitled Making Friends Out of Enemies. Characteristically, he opened his speech with a joke. He said when he was in San Francisco several days ago, a woman addressed him as Archbishop Mandela. "It's like getting two for the price of one," he laughed.
He gave a speech every person should hear. He told the audience that we are all one. He said we all need each other to be who we are stating the South African Ubuntu tradition that a person is a person through other persons. He elaborated:
"I need you in order for me to be me. I need other human beings in order for me to be human. We are created so that we aren't ever self-sufficient. I have gifts that you don't have, and you have gifts that I don't have. We compliment each other and make up for what is lacking in the other. We are made for togetherness.
In our country we say a person is a person through other persons. We are made so each one of us is a connection of individuals in the family of humankind. That is the fundamental law of our being - that you and I were made for togetherness, were made for sharing. All kinds of things go horribly wrong when that fundamental law is breached. When we forget that we are family. We are all God's family. There are no outsiders. Everyone, every single one, is an insider.
You remember, those of you who are Christian will remember, how Jesus Christ said, 'I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all.'
All, all, all. I will draw all to hold in this incredible embrace that excludes no one. I will draw all - black and white, rich and poor, all, all, all, all, all.
Service learning educators and friends from Puerto Rico attended the conference!
Joe Follman, Executive Director of Florida Learn and Serve!
Beatriz and Janis, service-learning teachers from Miami!
The conference featured many performances and entertainers like these young dancers.
Students displayed tie dye shirts with messages of peace in the exhibit hall.
Archbishop Tutu danced to some hip hop music and joked about the cold and then gave a short speech encouraging the youth. He congratulated them for their service to the community and gave them encouraging and hopeful words.
Desmond Tutu and his daughter, Naomi, joined Minneapolis Mayor Raybak to address a gathering of youth and teachers from the conference and PeaceJam who were gathered in North Minneapolis to do community service for the homeless and hungry. Snow fell lightly as teenagers cheered and raced towards his arriving van. The archbishop shook their hands and greeted them warmly. His body guards led him to the stage set up in the parking lot of a grocery store in North Minneapolis.
After the speeches everyone worked together to make hundreds of sandwiches, and prepare boxes of drinks and food for to be distributed to the hungry. Some lined up to receive the food and some was sent to shelters.
Message from Mrs. Doromal:
Thanks to Joe Follman, The Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve America, National Youth Leadership Council, Florida Learn and Serve, State Farm Insurance, David Eisner, Amy Cohen, Tracey Seabolt, Dave Premo, and my family, service-learning friends, and supporters for honoring my work, for the opportunity to meet my hero, and for 48 hours I will forever cherish!
