Local Outreach - Tool kit | 
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The Tool kit for Local Outreach is coming here soon. In the meantime, here are some recent reports for your enjoyment. You may also find interesting articles at this UK site: http://propagationtoolkits.blogspot.com/
Here are reports about some events that happened on or around September 21, the International Day of Peace:
San Antonio, Texas:
We just had a peace day celebration at Palo Alto College with about 100 students faculty and staff in attendance. Six people with Knowledge also stopped in. Some people were very touched and wanted to know “how to pursue this.”
Lots of free materials were given out at the info table. Our sponsor Dr. Rodgriguez seemed to be having a good time He was agreeing and commenting during Maharaji's talk. When a couple of other instructor's came in late and asked him 'what's this about?' he told them to sit down and watch! They sat there for a while and one of them was heard to say 'what the hell is this' to his friend. By the end of his address their comments were 'that was amazing!' and 'that was really really deep'!
The students attending had to write a one page essay on what they learned at the International Day of Peace event, and seemed to be enjoying the presentation. We've been invited back for the spring by another professor who wants to bring his class. Very open place. Very beautiful event. We all got totally blissed out! RB Portland, Maine area
On Friday, September 21, we presented at the Whole Life Tent of the Common Ground Fair in Maine. This fair is huge. It is put on by Maine Organic Farmers Association. In honor of United Nations Peace Day we showed Prem Rawat at the Australia Parliament House and then Discovering More. Our Keys Librarian spoke and 4 people took Intro to the Keys. After the DVD from Australia, the woman who coordinated the area (she is an animal communicator) shouted out. "The grasshoppers are here for the first time (in the tent) and they are jumping for joy!"
We had a blast. On the table we had brochures which promote our Words of Peace shows across the state of Maine, Who U Are dvds and lovely bookmarks. These materials would be available all three days of the fair. Something unique about what we did was that people across the state and beyond participated- whether they were making labels, creating and printing bookmarks, working with the fair volunteers, taking care of the AV, planning the program or acting as MC. RRL
Las Vegas:
We went on the National Peace Walk here last week. We met some good people and were able to talk about our group at the end of the walk to everyone. Some of the walkers came up to ask for information. As a result, one volunteer ended up going to the grand opening of presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's office here in Vegas. Many of the walkers were his supporters and had invited us. We gave his wife a DVD and a letter with information.IW
Yellow Springs, Ohio:
A premie went to a peace festival and simply walked around handing out information and talking to people individually. The power of one! PD
Lansing, MI:
Thirteen organizations formed a coalition called Peace Partners of Greater Lansing, including the local Words of Peace team. We were really able to promote our local cable show and handed out the excerpt from Maharaji’s address last Peace Day at the Australian Parliament. We also arranged to have special handouts for the class of beautiful children that attended. When they came by our table, we talked to them about the peace that will always be in their hearts, no matter what. Maybe someday these nine year olds will look back and remember the first time they heard about the possibility of real peace and joy in their lives!
It was a real eye-opener thinking about the patience Maharaji has. He's talked about it so many times, but working so hard on this and walking away afterwards, it's easy to think, "well, what did that accomplish?" Then one realizes, it's all about building on something. One to one, one by one. To look ahead and want to know the result? Folly!
As Maharaji always reminds us, "Enjoy the vacation."
Re: materials: We asked Robert P. in Canada to use the red/white design from coolchill.org for our cable poster. We had the info handout printed in red to match. We put the poster on foam core and affixed DVD covers to show the quality of events viewers would see on cable. We weren't allowed to sell, just display and giveaway on the handout
s and excerpt. The book Peace is Possible is being sold by a store that was part of this event, so it was cool to display it and let people know where to purchase if interested. The bookstore owner is very excited to have it and we plan to do an event at his store soon, which has a small viewing room for presentations. The Mayor blew us all away with his heartfelt words, no notes or speech. He even said "We spend so much preparing for war, but how much do we prepare for peace". (Is he watching Words of Peace on cable? Sounds like someone else we know…!)
The lovely Flint boys, Richard and Eugene drove in to help us. They brought a portable DVD player and we used a tape Tom made with the interviews recently woven into some titles like One Journey. We felt it was inappropriate to play Maharaji in a setting like this. The interviews were very nice. The “customer speaks” approach is a good place to start! Not to brag, but our display was the "talk of the town". Shows what passion can do. The quality of materials we have to show people is awesome. Who/what else compares to what he offers? Yes, there's always improvement in the way we present the message, but the message itself can never be improved. CW
Stratham, NH: (click to see table top display created for this event)
The most unique part about our Peace Day Celebration in Stratham was that it began as a plan by us premies who make up the Seacoast Knowledge Center community to host a small celebration for the United Nations International Day of Peace and to invite local groups and their members along. When we contacted the other groups to see if they would like to come to this kind of celebration, some of them were so wholeheartedly interested, that they became co-team members with us in sponsoring the event. In the end, the event was the combined effort of ourselves along with folks from the local health food market, the yoga center, the wife and kids of one volunteer, several local musicians and bands, and the local Taoist Tai Chi Society.
We started the day in our outdoor tent with two lovely young women singing, then went into some warm-up yoga and a prayer/meditation for peace at high noon. The theme of the day, agreed upon by all the active groups involved in the event, was to celebrate the joy living in harmony with ourselves, our neighbors, and our environment. There were a number of various groups hosting tables in the outdoor tent, from holistic health approaches to ecology advocates to us, with a table introducing Maharaji and his message. There we gave out mini-DVDs of the Maharaji's address at the Australian Parliament on the International Day of Peace 2005.
Inside the Seacoast Knowledge Center we showed DVDs on a continuing basis in our screening room and gave out gift packets of materials. Two people requested and were given the Introduction to the Keys. The afternoon brought some great music out in the tent, including premie Drew crooning some modern-day love songs and Tom doing a rousing and funny rendition of Give Peace a Chance as the finale to the event.
We had anticipated a lot of people coming and staying for a short spell, then leaving and had guessed that around 150-200 people might come.
Instead, somewhere around 50 or so people came to the celebration and were having such a wonderful time that most of them stayed through the entire program (11am-3pm). Everyone said that they would like to celebrate again in this way for next year's Peace Day. We did our best to ensure that each person who attended was introduced to Maharaji's message by means of our gift/materials packs. The packages provided an introductory brochures and DVD, Discovering More, information on our local DVD screenings (1st and 3rd Sunday each month), and info on how to request The Keys. We have a local Keys lending library here and provided on all materials our "866" number for interested people to call and request information about local events and materials (including The Keys).
Two newly interested people went home with the Introduction to the Keys. The volunteers who participated in this event came from Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. Everyone had a wonderful time and all felt so fortunate to be able to help to make this message available. Everyone involved, volunteers and local residents, all agreed it was a most worthwhile event to celebrate Peace Day and that we will do it again next year. CL
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