Accomplishments: May 2008 to April 2009

NEWSLETTERS:

We published another year of our bi-monthly newsletter (SW Washington’s most comprehensive peace & justice newsletter) and mailed nearly 500 copies of each issue to people throughout Thurston and nearby counties.
Our newsletters inform and inspire people in a great many ways in support of peace, nonviolence, and social & economic justice. We publicize information our readers wouldn’t see elsewhere – and we publicize many other organizations’ activities as well as our own.

The Olympia FOR produced and broadcast another year of one-hour programs on public affairs issues. Each program aired twice a week for a full month on Thurston Community TV, cable channel 22 in Thurston County. Ours is TCTV’s longest-running series – 22 years!
This year’s subjects included: immigration, nonviolence, elections & democracy, people-to-people exchanges, questions about the official 9-11 story, death penalty, the common good & real democracy, human rights & Amnesty International, foreign policy, interfaith understanding & the visual arts, “re-thinking the whole economy,” and nuclear weapons.
Our additional TCTV series, “The Big Picture,” showed a wide variety of interesting video documentaries at 10 p.m. every Sunday night. We give most to the Timberland Regional Library system, so you may borrow them.

We completed 29 years of vigiling from 12 noon to 1 pm at Sylvester Park’s corner at Legion & Capitol Way. We’ve vigiled every Wednesday since March 5, 1980.
We also completed 10 ½ years of vigiling at Percival Landing’s south end every Friday. We vigil there from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. all year around.
We welcomed other organizations’ participation in our vigils with special themes on certain special dates.
We made many new and timely signs for our vigils.
Many persons participated in our 33rd annual Holiday Peace Vigil on Saturday December 20.

We supported a long weekend of nonviolence training using the national FOR’s “Creating a Culture of Peace” curriculum.
We supported and participated in a series of structured conversations with diverse people about military shipments through the Port of Olympia.
We contributed financial support to several other organizations’ efforts for peace, social justice and nonviolence.
We published newsletter articles about building grassroots nonviolent movements. We are posting these articles on our website and offering copies as handouts.
We presented and/or sponsored several speaking engagements, workshops and special events about war and peace, the power and practicality of nonviolence, how to strengthen social change movements, and related topics.
We supported rallies, marches and other activities to oppose the current wars and support peace and justice.
Upon request, we provided peacekeeper services to help several large peace and justice events succeed by staying safe, effective and nonviolent for everybody.

We are rebuilding our website, www.olympiafor.org, which features our complete newsletters, calendars, descriptions of our TV programs, and information about various issues and organizations and activities.

Our Committee for Alternatives to the Death Penalty met every month for self-education and action.
Our committee reached out to the public. We spoke to several audiences. We tabled at TESC’s Super Saturday, Olympia’s Pride Celebration, Tacoma’s Ethnic Fest, and elsewhere.
We participated actively as an organizational member of the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

We organized the annual peace lantern floating ceremony as part of the traditional Japanese Bon Odori mid-summer festival at Capitol Lake.
We organized a public display of children’s peace-related art for Arts Walk in downtown Olympia.
We enjoyed potluck picnics in June and August.
We staffed information tables and spoke to audiences at several local events.
We co-sponsored, endorsed, and/or financially supported a great variety of events and activities for peace, social justice and nonviolence.

We collaborated with a variety of local organizations in support of their efforts and activities for peace, social and economic justice, human rights and nonviolence.
We responded to a great many requests from individuals and organizations and provided an abundance of information, referrals, consultation, services and support for their efforts for peace, social justice, and nonviolence.
We belong to the Thurston County Progressive Network (TC Pro-Net), www.tcpronet.org
We actively participated in activities of the Western Washington FOR. We contributed financial support to help WWFOR better serve us and the regional peace movement. Several Olympia FOR representatives actively served on the WWFOR’s regional board.
An Olympia FOR member represents our grassroots values on the FOR’s national board of directors.

We accomplish a tremendous amount because we are committed to our values, are well organized, cooperate well with others, earn the larger community’s respect and cooperation, and work very hard.
Our Long-Range Strategic Planning efforts are generating feedback and suggestions from our members and planning more and better activities for the future.
Our large, active Steering Committee meets regularly and provides overall direction and decision-making.
Our Annual Meeting / Celebration / Election encourages broad participation in strengthening the Olympia FOR and having a good time as peacemakers.
We connect local folks with regional activities through the Western Washington FOR (www.wwfor.org) and other activities through the national FOR (www.forusa.org)
We continually welcome new people to our mailing list and our many activities.
We are an all-volunteer organization that relies entirely on voluntary tax-deductible contributions.
We even had fun raising money! Seattle folksinger Tom Rawson performed a highly enjoyable benefit concert.

Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation

5015 15^th Avenue SE, Lacey WA 98503-2723

(360) 491-9093 info@olympiafor.org www.olympiafor.org

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