The JRPC Coordinating Council and Missoula Peace Quilters awards the 2015 Peacemaker award to Kathi and Glenn “Woody” Wood.
Mother Teresa said, “Do small things with great love.” Kathi and Woody have spent a lifetime doing things with great love for people all around the world, having both been raised to believe that service was their obligation as citizens of the world. Acting on that belief, they have been and continue to be committed volunteers for many organizations in the 15 years they have been in Missoula, including the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, MT Innocence Project, UM MOLLI Program, the Welcome Center, Missoula Aging Services, the Symphony, Farm to Market Nutrition program, Missoula Demonstration Project, Community Circles, the Missoula International Friendship Program and many others.
Kathi and Glenn “Woody” Wood
Family is the crucial place where they have nurtured each other and their children to have firm and stable roots while reaching out with wings of love. Seeing others in need, they have responded time after time in small and big ways with great love.
If peace is created as we break down barriers and work to understand and appreciate others, then Kathi and Woody truly lead the effort. They have traveled the world making friends in New Zealand, Australia, China, Myanmar, Britain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Yugoslavia, Cambodia and Laos. And each place they go, they find ways to help by volunteering, helping out the local people they meet and bringing home new understanding of our neighbors to all of us, including ways we can help raise money, sponsor students in school, collect goods or other ways to engage us in the larger world.
Following a recent trip to Myanmar, they discovered a village that desperately needed a boat so they quietly set about fundraising and spreading the word to our community so that the dream of a boat could be realized halfway around the world. Kathi makes sure that local knitters work to keep the men and women of the Seamen’s Institute in warm clothing. And Kathi and Woody’s connections to the world don’t stop once their travels are done. They have opened their home and their hearts to serve as host to many international students, professionals and other visitors from around the world.
The peacemaker award is given each year to individuals or groups who demonstrate a long-term commitment to peace and justice and take a leadership role in creating a better world. We look for people who “walk the walk” in their personal and professional lives. And perhaps you have seen Kathi and/or Woody “walking the walk” all around town as they live the values they believe.
The community is invited to join us as we honor this very special couple, our 29th Peacemakers and celebrate their lifetime of commitment to a better and more peaceful, connected world at an awards celebration on Sunday, April 26 from 1-3 pm at Christ The King Catholic Church at 1400 Gerald in Missoula. The Missoula Peace Quilters have just completed a very special quilt for the Woods, as they do for each of the award recipients. The quilt will be unveiled and presented at the celebration on April 26, and coffee and cake will be served at a reception afterward. The event is free and open to the public.
For more information about the award, please visit our website at www.jrpc.org
PRIOR PEACEMAKER OF THE YEAR WINNERS
1986 Flo Chessin
1987 Jim Ranney
1988 Butch Turk
1989 Connie Skousen
1990 Perry Gliessmann
1991 Pat Ortmeyer
1992 Anita Doyle
1993 Beth Sirr
1994 Scott Morgan & Tom Javins
1995 Julie Grant
1996 Alice Campbell
1997 John Agner & Tammy Elser
1998 Pete Lawrenson
2000 Jim Hogan
2001 Liz Rantz
2002 Scott Nicholson & Bryony Schwan
2003 Rita Jankowski-Bradley
2004 Amy Martin
2005 Ethel MacDonald
2006 Peter Shober
2007 Josh Slotnick
2008 Carel Schneider & Women In Black
2009 Jim Caron
2010 John Baugh
2011 Jane McAllister
2012 Dan Gallagher
2013 Meyer “Mike” Chessin
2014 Claudia Brown