Sep 9th, 2007
Seeking Alumni for Peace Child Reunion
This blog, as my readers know, rarely strays from my specific topic of addressing the intersection of LGBT issues and family issues. This post is an exception. Kind of.
At the age of 16, I was part of a life-shaping experience called Peace Child. I traveled with fifteen U.S.ers (and one Canadian) to the republic of Kazakhstan (now it’s own country since the USSR no longer exists) and performed a musical about peace with 15 Kazakh teens. The U.S. version of Peace Child has since disbanded, but Peace Child International still has various projects, such as this one in Tokyo.
I say that this post is “kind of” off topic because my involvement with the peace movement as a teen was still very much linked to being queerspawn. Like many kids of LGBT parents, I grew up with a strong sense of social justice for everyone, not just LGBT communities. I might not have felt safe as a teenager speaking out about equality for my family, but that didn’t stop me from singing my heart out about reaching out with love, not fear. (One of the songs in the musical, in fact, is called “Reach Out with Love.”)
That said, I am looking forward to the upcoming 25th reunion in Washington DC on December 1, 2007. It is for all the tours over the years, and I am trying to contact these “missing” alumni from my Kazakhstan 1988 tour:
Jennifer Wedel of Minnesota
Erik Anderson (from San Diego, went to Harvard)
Eric Gilmore of Sacramento
Ramaa Mosley of Ojai
John Beard of Roanoke
Stacey Panas of Santa Rosa, California
Erin McKenna of Rochester NY
Chris Allen of Laguna Niquel, California
Unfortunately, I am only guessing at the transliteration of my old friends from Kazakhstan, and I am lacking many last names:
Gouhara Kasimjanova(?)
Alyona
Saida Yerjanova
Julia Manorava/Manarova(?)
Sasha
Ira Pyatnitskaya (Irina)
Nariman Bashiktenov
Volodia Byelov (”Bob”)
Noorlan Maldajonov(?)
Iona
Marina
Derek
Amir
Olga
Elena
I am taking advantage of my high-ranking in search engines with hope that my old friends will Google their own name or “Peace Child Kazakhstan” to find this page.
If you are one of these people, or know one of these people, please click on the “contact” button above to get in touch. Regardless of your interest/ability to meet up in DC in December, please contact me.
You can also sign up for the all-alumni mailing list.
Dear Abigail,
Thanks for the prompt about the reunion on my blog. I’m actually just about to post a sermon in which I share a memory from 1991 peace child tour to czechoslovakia. I would LOVE to participate in the reunion, but as I am a parish pastor who has used up my Sundays off for the year, travelling to D.C. for a Saturday event is a near impossibility. If it were Thursday or Friday I could do it. Will there be events on Thursday or Friday? E-mail me with more info!
Thanks.
[...] Child alumni to find each other. There are two companion sites I can refer alumni to and that is Abigail Garner’s website (Kazakhstan Tour) and Debbie Snyder’s Peace Child Alumni Yahoo group. (Debbie was on the [...]
Dear Abigail,
I am writing on behalf of my partner, Don. Don was a music director for Peace Child. I just came across the information on the reunion and am going to register for him to attend. If possible, can you let me know if he was the Music Director for your event. Alternatively, if he is not, can you let me know who I might contact to find out which year he did Peace Child. I know I could ask, but I’m trying to surprise him.
Thanks.