YMCA celebrates Peace Week
The YMCA presented two locals with Peace Medals to mark Peace Week across Canada.
On Thursday, November 22, the YMCA hosted a yoga class and a Peace Medal ceremony to commemorate this important week.
“The YMCA is a long-time supporter and advocate of peace in all its forms. For a week each year, YMCAs across Canada offer special activities that encourage the exploration of the many dimensions of peace from a personal, community and international perspective,” said Kristin Bochek, Fitness and Special Events Coordinator at the YMCA. For the month of November, the YMCA focused on several peace initiatives throughout the community. “We worked hard throughout the month of November to focus on and celebrate all of the hard work that not only we do here within the walls of our YMCA but that our community does as well outside of the YMCA. We visited all of our Childcare centers, BASP program and Y Boys and Y Girls program and discussed peace, what it means to them and how it impacts all of our lives on a daily basis,” she explained. “We built a YMCA Peace Chain, created a bridge between our world now and our vision of a perfect world with a YMCA Bridge of Peace and handed out PEACE It Forward tokens to encourage our community to #actforpeace.”
YMCA Peace Medals were also presented to Kelli Lemstra and Vivian Gauvin for their contributions as peacemakers in the community. The peace medals were presented following the Yoga for Peace class on Thursday, November 22.
The YMCA Peace Medal is presented at YMCA’s across the country every year to recognize individuals and groups who without any special resources, status, wealth or position demonstrate a commitment to building peace within their community.
One of the peace medal recipients Kelli Lemstra created an app called ‘The Daily Difference’ that is a resource and a tool for youth just like her to access resources to help manage important issues such as anxiety, depression, bullying, and much more. Meanwhile, Vivian Gauvin demonstrated the values of peace with her tireless efforts to build inclusive, respectful communities. She has worked to lay the groundwork in the community for the continued advancement of peace through reconciliation, support for the community’s homeless, and works selflessly with Moose Jaw’s special needs community. In accepting the Peace Medal, Gauvin thanked the YMCA and members of the community who nominated her.
“A big thank you goes out to our community for submitting Peace Medal recipient nominations and for attending the Yoga for Peace class, Megan Welwood for instructing our Yoga class, and everyone else that was involved with our Peace Week activities,” said Bochek.