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November 24, 2000/Heshvan 26, 5761, Vol. 53, No.9
Walking as one
Scottsdale event to promote diversity, understanding
BARRY COHEN
Community Editor
Rory Gilbert, NCCJ executive director, left, and Jessica Gottlieb display the official Anytown USA T-shirt.
Photo courtesy of the National Conference for Community and Justice |
Valley residents have an opportunity to take a stand against bigotry, intolerance and racism. All they have to do is take a walk.
The National Conference for Community and Justice "Walk as One Walk-a-Thon" begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Scottsdale Performing Arts Center Park in downtown Scottsdale.
"We want to make the statement that racism and prejudice have no place in our society," says Jessica Colom, "Walk as One" coordinator.
More than 95 groups representing businesses, faith and community organizations and schools will participate, says Colom.
Category chairpeople are C. Richard Potts, immediate past president of the Phoenix Rotary Club, community groups; Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross, businesses and corporations; Rabbi Albert Plotkin, rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth Israel of Scottsdale, faith groups; and Dr. Jim Jurs, superintendent of the Paradise Valley Unified School District, education.
The walk will bring together people of diverse backgrounds whose paths would not normally cross, to raise funds for NCCJ's youth and community programming, Colom says.
"We want to welcome all comers," says Rory Gilbert, NCCJ executive director.
Bailey Kramer, a freshman at Arizona State University, has participated in Anytown USA, an NCCJ program to promote diversity among high school students.
She recalls feeling hesitant when she was invited to attend a 1997 Camp Anytown in Prescott for a six-day summer workshop.
"But my friends who had participated told me repeatedly I needed to go," Kramer explains. So she "took a chance" and agreed to be a delegate.
"You can't understand (what it is like) unless you've been," she says. "It is a very emotionally draining experience."
Campers start each day at 7 a.m. and don't turn out the lights until 11 p.m., with little "down time." Any extra moments are spent in conversation, laughing and crying, she says.
The highlight is "when the delegates are learning about other people, understanding different things that are not 'me.' "
Getting to know people from backgrounds and experiences different from her own taught her that not everyone grows up as financially secure and protected as she felt.
Two years later, Kramer returned to Camp Anytown as a counselor.
"This time you know what will happen," she says.
Kramer says the goal is for participants "to understand that community is based on diversity. It makes us strong."
Anytown helps students "to learn to honor diversity, not to tear it down," she adds.
Anytown counselors look for progress in delegates' awareness, waiting for them "to get it."
Kramer says in just a week, Camp Anytown builds a community. "It is an awesome experience."
"Some of the kids remain close," Kramer says. She and other delegates and staff members stay in touch through e-mail and phone conversations.
Gilbert says the "Walk as One" event fits with the basic philosophy of Camp Anytown - to fight bias, bigotry and racism and to promote respect and understanding for all people.
Many of the delegates and counselors from summer workshops, as well as Camp Anytown board members, will participate in the walk.
"It's a reason for the campers to get back together," she adds.
"Walk as One" includes a diversity festival featuring ethnic food - Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Indian, Italian and Caribbean - and dance performances and music highlighted by a Chinese dragon, Baha'i step dancers and a Mariachi band.
Gilbert notes that "lack of civility" is a significant problem in American society. She says NCCJ-sponsored programs promote civility through understanding and also teach "a fundamental principal we can all agree upon: We are all deserving of basic respect and civil rights."
NCCJ was founded in 1927 as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, to fight bigotry and racism in the United States. The organization continues to promote mutual understanding, cooperation and conflict resolution among people of differing religions, cultures and races.
Other NCCJ programs in Phoenix include Unitown and Minitown, condensed versions of Camp Anytown offered to schools, agencies and religious groups, and 24-hour trips from Phoenix to the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, where students learn about racism and prejudice in America and the history of the Holocaust.
Although members of the Jewish community will be among the walkers, Gilbert says no Jewish or Muslim groups will formally participate in the "Walk as One" event, explaining that it falls on the Jewish Sabbath and coincides with the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.
Though Temple Beth Sholom of Chandler is not participating, the synagogue made a contribution to NCCJ, says Rabbi Bonnie Koppell.
This is the inaugural year in Phoenix for the "Walk as One" event; she adds, "I understand why they did it on Shabbat (Saturday)."
"We agonized over what date to do it on," says Gilbert. "It was not done with any disrespect."
She adds that next year the walk likely will be scheduled to allow participation by both Jewish and Muslim groups.
This is the first year "Walk as One" is being held here, says Colom. The event began last year in 10 communities nationwide; 10 additional communities joined this year, says Colom.
The main sponsor of "Walk as One" is the Arizona Diamondbacks; co-sponsors are two law firms: Greenberg, Traurig and Bonnett; and Fairbourn, Friedman and Balint.
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