Posted By : lcarroll on : 2007-12-08 12:53:56

Thank you.

It has been my great pleasure both as an educator and in regards to my musical work with Signal Hill Records and my band Velvetbox, to have had the opportunity to use my creativity in the area of social justice.

As a native Newfoundlander and Chairperson for the Peace-a-chord youth movement, a Newfoundland entity, I am extremely proud of our accomplishments in conjunction with the Catholic School Board here in Ottawa. Over the last couple of years we have seen Peace-a-chord flourish to the point of being able to make a donation to Make Poverty History today! We thank you for being here to witness that!

A big thanks goes out to the St. Joseph students, staff and community for their efforts in our last chapter of Peace-a-chord. A great deal of gratitude goes to my partner, colleague and friend, Mr. Julian Hall, for sharing my vision, believing in it and working tirelessly to achieve it! The students and staff at St. Mark whom have now become involved in Peace-a-chord are steadfast, unalterable and unyielding in their Peace-a-chord journey. We thank them for their efforts, are glad to provide the students with many learning experiences and marvel at their talents.

From its origin, Peace-a-chord has provided opportunities for youth to showcase their musical talents while flying the peace flag. We are honoured, in the new era of Peace-a-chord, to be reaching out even further to partner with agencies such as DATA and MAKE POVERTY HISTORY in efforts to personify our board theme of 'WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR?" .......and do what we can to make the world not only a more peaceful, but ... a more harmonious place. There are people starving in this world due to extreme poverty and dying needlessly when we have medicine that can save their lives. Our voices can put an end to it. We have a responsibility to take care of them. Debt, Aids, Trade, Africa., agencies like Make Poverty History who are out there on the front lines are the places to start in our quest for world peace and harmony. We want to support the Make Poverty History group in encouraging our G8 leaders to keep their promises for debt relief by 2012, we want one minute of silence across the world for peace in the middle of our Peace-a-chord concert in 2009 and we want to partner with the United Nations to create legislation declaring a world youth peace day to be celebrated annually and to be called, "Peace-a-chord Day"!

While we look forward to the growth and development of our partnerships, we are educators at the heart of this undertaking. Yes, we have big plans, but first and foremost, this is about inspiring our youth of today, reinforcing with them that they are the voice and leadership of tomorrow and facilitating opportunity for them to make a difference. Children in our very own communities have seen their parents fight and die in war. Their lives have been affected by it and they want to do something about it. We want them to have the opportunity to reach out and connect with children their own age around the whole world who feel the very same way they do and who want to live in peace and harmony.

From the beginnings of Peace-a-chord, to the great success of our efforts over the last couple of years in conjunction with the Ottawa Catholic School Board, and as Peace-a-chord now dawns a new day, our vision has grown...

We want to announce the birth of our new web site peace-a-chord.com, the inception of Velvetbox Television, a vehicle to market and promote Peace-a-chord and our upcoming spring tour on which as a group of staff and students, we are hoping to meet with Bono and Bob Geldof on Easter Sunday, in Ireland, to discuss making our Peace-a-chord concert in 2009, the biggest concert in history!

I have been honoured to dedicate the Velvetbox song, "And I...Like a Candle, Burn" to the campaign and am currently waiting for correspondence from Oprah's producers with respect to her supporting the efforts of Peace-a-chord.

Our business plan is coming to fruition ...and this youth based movement has now come to the threshold of the entire world ...

Through the big stadium concert to church basements, to concert halls, clubs, art galleries, roof tops and more...again...Peace-a-chord aims...

• To encourage our G8 leaders to keep their promises for 2012.
• To provide students with an opportunity to be actively involved in a world wide social justice initiative in support of our board the theme: Who is my Neighbour?
• To support the advocacy efforts of DATA
• To raise money for MAKE POVERTY HISTORY.
• To partner with the UNITED NATIONS to establish a world youth peace day and create legislation declaring this annually recognized day to be "PEACE-A-CHORD DAY".
• To celebrate, simultaneously, one minute of world peace amidst the PEACE-A-CHORD concert, to be held in 2009.

If achieved, this would show us that ...we can have it!! And we hope and pray that it would lead to us...keeping it!!

Peace-a-Chord is a non profit organization helping to make the world a more peaceful and harmonious place. As such, we appreciate our partnerships and sponsors. We are privileged, today, to kick off this new and exciting chapter of Peace-a-chord by inviting Mr. Dennis Howlett, Director of the Ottawa Chapter of Make Poverty History to accept our donation of $2000 as the first step toward realizing our dream!

• Mr. Howlett!