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Dear Friends,
Shortly after Typhoon Haiyan (the strongest typhoon ever recorded) hit land on November 8, 2013, I thought to myself "I want to go to the Philippines." I then I picked up the phone to call the one person I knew that had connections there, my old friend Steven Smith. And then I began formulating a plan. As is the case, when you're on the right path, the doors began opening. Ruby Rubes walked into the gallery and said "I have a friend, Christine Apa, who is in communication with a small island that needs help." I thought, "Hmmmm...housing!" And I got in touch with an engineer I met in Sierra Leone whose been working in Haiti for four years. I then called up architect Lance O'Donnell who pulled in Stephen Gardner and we designed a house that had about $500 in building materials and could be built in less than a day.
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Then I got on a plane. I arrived on Bantayan Island on New Year's Eve and saw complete devastation. Houses and lives were torn apart. My intuition (and Paulo Esgana and Albert Camay) led me to the small community of Tabunok, where laden with toys and brightly colored candy for the kids, I met some of the most beautiful children I'd ever seen. I saw despair -- from it, hope was born. |
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I look back on last year and the first eleven months were spent doing one thing -- shaking down people for cash to build some houses. Fil-Am Superstars like Dante and Arianna Basco joined me in this pursuit as did many others from the local Filipino community including Rotary Club of Historic Filipinotown. It's impossible to name everyone that pitched in -- Benjamin Moore contributed all the paint, South Bay Fabrication created brackets, hundreds of people kicked in cash and art, others donated time, hundreds of artists from around the world donated the rights to their artwork through The Peace Project's 5th Annual Call for Artists, nearly 100 artists participated in two Affair of the Arts that we produced. Customers continued shopping in The Whole 9 Gallery. DJs like Blas Lorenzo spun for free while people like Sekou Andrews spat, others sang, some danced and against the odds, on November 8, 2014, Stephen Gardner led a crew that included TheWhole9.com supporter & volunteer Ray Hennessy in completing our final house -- built in about 4 hours 'cause that's what crazy Americans do.
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Everyone gave a little and because of that, we accomplished a lot. In a world that, too often of late, has been ripped apart by hate, ignorance, prejudice and small thinking, creative people from around the world -- people who have never met -- on different continents in different time zones and who speak dozens of languages -- people from different backgrounds, different religions, people who are gay and straight, black, white and brown -- thought big and joined hands with The Peace Project to prove that, if we recognize our respective humanity and apply compassion, innovative thinking and action, we can create something wonderful, something amazing...something that will change the future for a community of people -- some who had thought their lives might be over.
We're getting ready to go back to Tabunok in two weeks to build our first Peace Center -- a place where we'll expand the cooperative we started, sell the organic vegetables the community has been growing, celebrate arts and culture, teach vocational skills and conduct micro-lending. We all know that you can either give a man a fish, you can teach him to fish...or you can learn to fish together The community building model we're developing in Tabunok will help us as we move forward with other projects including putting homeless Los Angeles veterans in homes. |
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I'd like to once again ask for your help. If what we've created together inspires you, please consider visiting www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-peace-center within the next 12 hours to make a donation of any amount. Most donations will get you something cool in return that has been lovingly made and generously donated by an artist (or an art supplier like Prismacolor or Golden Paints) that support our work. All donations will garner our gratitude. And most importantly, with your help, we can continue proving that, despite what it seems like lately, beauty can be created from devastation and love can win the day.
With gratitude,
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