For the 37th consecutive week, the Center for Peace & Conflict Studies has compiled a list of acts of kindness and peace. The initiative began as a response to COVID-19 and the racism pandemic but has broadened to include any act of compassion or service to others. Please share these stories. If you have stories of positive acts people/organizations are taking and you would like to share them, please email them to Brandon Miller at peacecenter@bsu.edu. All the stories starting from week 1 are available online. Additionally, you can follow the Peace Center on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) at bsu4peace.
After a Security Guard Returns a Lost Wallet, His Community Buys Him a Car
Aina Townsend works as a security guard for a grocery store in Maui. On night, he found a wallet that a customer had left in a grocery cart. It belonged to one Chloe Marino who had been trying to manage her groceries and her infant. During the chaos, she left her wallet. Knowing she would be concerned, Townsend, who gets around town using his bike, decided to return the wallet to Marino. So he biked the three miles to her address and handed it off. Marino and her husband, Gray, were impressed by Townsend’s thoughtfulness. “He literally rode his bicycle to return her wallet. Completely full of everything important to her including cash. Nothing was so much as moved,” Gray proclaimed on social media. “Words cannot do this gentleman justice. He truly is what is right on our island and in this world.” Then the post started getting attention. A lot of it. Its popularity gave Gray’s business partner the idea to return some kindness to Townsend. So they created a GoFundMe to collect donations so that Townsend could buy a new car, and in two weeks, they had raised more than $25,000. The money bought a 2017 VW Jetta and covered the cost of gas and insurance for a year. When he received the gift, Townsend was astounded and claimed that he was just trying to do what he would have wanted someone to do for him.
Source: Inspire More - https://www.inspiremore.com/aina-townsend-new-car/
Agriculture Company Builds Highly Efficient, Climate-Friendly Indoor Farms to Reduce Food Insecurity
As climate change continues to threaten the food production system of a world in which food insecurity is all too common, climate friendly and efficient methods of agriculture are sorely needed. AppHarvest, an Appalachian-based tech and agriculture company is responding to that need in the U.S. The facilities that AppHarvest maintains save space compared to conventional farms while producing 30 times more than would a conventional farm with the same footprint. AppHarvest farms are designed with maximum efficiency in mind. Because the crops are grown indoors, the company eliminates agricultural runoff – a major source of pollution in America’s waterways. Further, recycled rainwater collected onsite is the only source of water they use for their crops. These innovations yield a form of agriculture that has a much lighter impact upon the environment. Indoor farming also enables a year-round growing season. Due to its extreme efficiency, the flagship farm is expected to grow 45 million pounds of tomatoes annually (currently, tomatoes are its main focus, but the company is working on a facility to grow leafy greens). Beyond its broader goals of addressing food insecurity in an environmentally friendly, technologically sophisticated way, the company also invests in local infrastructure. They have worked with regional high schools to install the equipment for students to create their own container farms, which allows them to learn about nutrition, technology, and sustainable agriculture.
Source: AppHarvest - https://www.appharvest.com/
A Symbol of White Supremacy is Converted to a Museum Dedicated to Promoting Racial Equality
Laurens, South Carolina, home of Reverend David Kennedy, has a troubled past. Its Echo Theater was historically segregated and eventually housed a museum and a recruitment center dedicated to white supremacy. The complex, known as the Redneck Shop, remained open and in operation until 2012, when it was closed after a lengthy legal battle in which Reverend Kennedy was instrumental. “To be a Black person in America, I have too many stories to share that people wouldn’t believe… Once you choose to speak out, people become fearful of us, and you have to be ready to sacrifice your mind, your heart, your soul, to tell the truth about history and what they did to our people. I was ready to make that sacrifice,” Reverend Kennedy said. However, closing the Redneck Shop was just one milestone in Reverend Kennedy’s fight to promote awareness and advance racial equality. In 2019, he and a local historian, Regan Freeman, founded the Echo Foundation. Its mission is to turn the Echo Theater into a different kind of museum that uses artifacts preserved from the Redneck Shop as tools to create teaching moments about the recent history of racism. As of 2021, the foundation had raised nearly $400,000 toward their goal. “We don’t want to just tell this story, the struggle for justice and the fight against the Klan,” Freeman said. “…we [want] to detail what happened here to make sure it never happens again.”
Source: CNN - https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/16/us/kkk-museum-redneck-store-echo-project-trnd/index.html
Note. The Ball State University Center for Peace & Conflict Studies will host the Benjamin V. Cohen Peace Conference: Building a Beloved Community. This virtual conference will be held on April 9 and 10!