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The U of MN Human Ecology Department |
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Local Peacemaker Makes A Difference EUNICE Eckerly moved to the West Bank of Minneapolis in 1971, when the building she lives in had just been built. At that time, she was working as a secretary for the Urban Coalition, an organization that was formed in the 1960s as an attempt to work through the problems that had led to rioting in the Twin Cities. She currently works at the College of Human Ecology at the University of Minnesota where she is a receptionist who should have the title "liaison." Eunice serves as a liaison between students, faculty, and University employees, assisting people in getting their jobs done and encouraging incoming students to try their best. So how'd she come to be involved in all these peacemaking endeavors? During the Vietnam War, Eunice met "a bunch of Quaker Activists known as 'The Movement for the New Society, or MNS.'" They believed that it was just as important to model peace as it was to oppose war, a view that Eunice shared. "Peacemaking is very important to me," Eckerly says. She has been involved in organizations such as an outreach to aid the homeless and hungry -- St. Martin's -- and with Trinity Lutheran Church. "Trinity has always had this important emphasis on ministry in the neighborhood. And I had come to believe through the years, that I thought faith was about the church being involved in the midst of the world." She believes in peace as a way of life; she has joined peace marches, gone to El Salvador and Nicaragua and assisted students in the West Bank neighborhood schools in getting involved with community groups to help advocate peace. Eunice Eckerly is not simply a peacemaker. She is a peacemaker assisting others to become peacemakers themselves. |
