Peace Walk aims to unite Dayton community
By: Meggie Welch – Staff Writer
The Dayton International Peace Museum and the National Conference for Community and Justice of Greater Dayton is hosting its first annual Peace Heroes Walk May 2 at Riverscape MetroPark.
The Dayton International Peace Museum and the National Conference for Community and Justice have decided to pay tribute to the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which helped end the violence in Bosnia, since it is the 20th anniversary of the event. The Dayton International Peace Museum is hosting other events around to try and solve the violence problems happening in the Greater Dayton area.
The 1995 Dayton Peace Accords involved President Bill Clinton and many other world leaders working together to end the horrific events of the Bosnian War and was a major event not only in Dayton’s history, but world history.
The Dayton International Peace Museum and The National Conference for Community and Justice of Greater Dayton created this event and hopes it becomes a tradition around Dayton.
Wright State University has decided to help out with the walk and a few of their student organizations are going to have teams participate in the walk.
Daniel Bloomingdale, a WSU student, is in charge of reaching out to universities, particularly UD and WSU. He believes any college student would be excited to be at the first Dayton Peace Heroes Walk.
According to its website, The Dayton International Peace Museum’s motto for the event is, “be the change you want to see in the world.” The goal of the walk is to promote peaceful alternatives to conflict, just as many world leaders have shown us how to do.
The website gives some examples of peaceful heroes. However, they encourage some to choose people in their own lives as heroes who have made a peaceful difference.
“Mahatma Gandhi is my hero because his life and work has inspired me to seek out peace over violence,” Bloomingdale said, “He showed me that you did not need to use violence to create real change in this world.”
There are many more real-world examples on their website and it is a great opportunity to look into all of the different ways college students and even younger kids can make a peaceful difference in a violent world.
Riverscape MetroPark is located at 111 E. Monument Ave.
Registration for the event begins at 8 a.m. and the walk is set to begin at 9 a.m. You can find out more information and sign up for the event at www.daytonpeacemuseum.org/peace-heroes-walk or peaceheroeswalk.org. There is also a Walk Info Hotline: 937-999-7314.