Dr. Sidorsky to speak in Bernardston Saturday
"Ultimate Peace!"
Dr. Robert Sidorsky will speak on Saturday morning, April 10th at 10am, at the Bernardston Unitarian Church as part of an ongoing Foreign Policy discussion series "Great Decisions 2010." Dr. Sidorsky is from Shelburne Falls and has a local Veterinary practice. He formerly was on the faculty of Northfield Mount Hermon School where he was instrumental in developing an Ultimate Frisbee varsity program. Dr. Sidorsky's talk will be about his participation in "Ultimate Peace".
As described on their web site ultimatepeace.org, "Ultimate Peace" builds bridges of friendship and understanding for youth from different social and cultural backgrounds around the world. We focus on fun and education, not politics, using the exhilarating and character building sport of Ultimate Frisbee as our tool ."
Bob and Linda Sidorsky in the Middle East.
Bob and his wife Linda Sidorsky were organizers and participants in Ultimate Peace in the Middle East which was touted as a "...huge success! Thousands of people around the world believed in the vision of uniting youth in areas of conflict through the character-building sport of Ultimate. As a result, hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli youth were happliy throwing and catching discs two weeks ago in Tel Aviv and the West Bank. "
Come hear first hand tales of that wonderful experience in Bernardston this Sat., Apr. 10.
Ultimate
peace was established by founders Dr.
David Barkan (California), Dori
Yaniv (Israel), and Linda
Sidorsky (Massachusetts) in the spring
of 2008. The idea emanated from a trip to Israel organized by David
and Dori, in which an All-Star Ultimate team known as the Matza Balls
taught Israeli children and promoted the sport of Ultimate. While
excited by the significant momentum generated in the world of Israeli
Ultimate by facilitating clinics and a tournament, the Americans were
dismayed by the realization that Ultimate was not being played in the
neighboring Palestinian sporting community. Members of the team
wondered what it would be like to have Palestinian and Israeli
children sharing the joys of throwing and catching a soaring Frisbee,
playing on a team cooperatively, and settling on-field disagreements
collaboratively. This vision, shared by Linda (organizer of
international youth Ultimate) for years, was pursued vigorously since
2006 and ultimately led to the concept of Ultimate Peace, the
partnership with the Peres
Center for Peace, and the event -
Ultimate
Peace in the Middle East.