Tri-City Families Walk for Peace | Sun Jan 22 1PM Kennedy Park, Union City

The Walk for Peace will take place on Sunday, January 22, 2017 at 1:00pm. This walk was initiated as a response to recent hate crimes and a desire for safe communities and honorable role models. We hope to encourage our neighbors to consider how they can be a part of enabling peaceful communities.

Join us as we walk:

• FOR being good neighbors & positive role models for children
• AGAINST discrimination & disrespect in all its forms
• IN SOLIDARITY with those who are threatened

This is a FAMILY-FRIENDLY event!

Meet at Charles F. Kennedy Park to join us for a 1:00pm start. We will walk from the park along Decoto Road towards the Union City Civic Center off Alvarado-Niles Road before looping back to the park.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tri-City Residents Come Together to Walk for Peace

Union City, CA - January 10, 2017 Parents, children, community leaders, and concerned residents in the Tri-City communities of Union City, Fremont, and Newark will walk together in a show of unity and a call for peace on Sunday, January 22, 2017 at 1:00pm, starting from Charles F. Kennedy Park in Union City.
The peace walk is being spearheaded by the local groups Great Exchange Church East Bay and Searles Elementary School. Additional groups and elected officials plan to attend as well.

Initiated as a response to recent hate crimes and a desire for safe communities and honorable role models, those walking hope to encourage their neighbors to consider how they can be a part of enabling peaceful communities. Specifically, the group states that they march for being good neighbors and positive role models for children. They march against discrimination and disrespect in all its forms. And they walk in solidarity with those who are threatened.

The group states that the walk is meant to be family-friendly and members of the community are invited to join the Walk for Peace. The walk will start at 1:00pm at Charles F. Kennedy Park located at 1333 Decoto Rd in Union City, CA, making a stop at the William Cann Memorial Civic Center off Alvarado-Niles Rd before looping back to Charles F. Kennedy Park.

Joylani Shibata, a Fremont resident and mother of two young children, helped to get the plans for the walk started. “I know many people who are saddened by the recent hate crimes in our local communities, as well as in other parts of the US, as well as a lack of integrity and respect for others shown by elected and appointed officials. I would venture to guess that there are many ‘lesser’ incidents that go unhighlighted in the media and our Facebook feeds,” says Shibata.

“These recent incidents are a reminder of the ongoing struggles against discrimination, violence, and hate that persist in our communities. Many people, including myself, have asked, ‘What can we do?’ Walking for peace is an outward demonstration of an inward commitment to be a person of peace and a positive role model for the children in our community. We hope that by initiating conversations, instigating compassion, and instilling an understanding of why this matters, we will bring positive change in our communities and nation. And, in the process, urge our elected officials to do the same: to lead and legislate with integrity and compassion.”

Contacts:
Reverend Brian Hui, Great Exchange Covenant Church East Bay, brian.hui@grxeastbay.org
Principal Raquel Bocage, Searles Elementary School, rbocage@nhusd.k12.ca.us
#familieswalkforpeace

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