Morro Bay, CA is an active Nonviolent City who work to build a culture of peace in their community year-round. They’ve worked to respond to the needs of their neighbors with mutual aid, and joined in the worldwide movement that is the 2023 Campaign Nonviolence Action Days. Find an action you can join here.

Ruth Ann Angus with Yes We Can Peacebuilders in Morro Bay, CA shares that 70+ people attended their two events. She writes, “I held two events—one for kids on 9/22 and one for adults on 9/23. On Friday 9/22/23 we held a Peace Day event with 35 children from the Morro Bay Kids Club where we spent some time reading the Youth for Human Rights booklets including our 30 United Nations Articles of Human Rights. Then we gathered around tables to work on designing a quilt on large pieces of paper that had the word “peace” stenciled on them. The kids used stickers with pictures and words of peace and other pictures emphasizing certain human rights in countries around the world. These drawings were photographed and sections of them will be made into fabric pieces that quilters can use to construct a quilt that we will auction off to raise funds for youth programs.

On Saturday 9/23/23 Peacebuilders held their yearly Morro Bay Peace Day event at the Estero Bay United Methodist Church. About 38 of us gathered outside around the peace pole to hear the explanation of International Peace Day and the Peace Pole and then went inside to hear the program with a talk by me called ‘Words to Make Clear’ talking about the words diversity, belonging, and empathy. We had another talk by Richard Kurrasch on the new ‘Center for an Ecological Center.’ We joined together in song with the UkeLadies group singing songs of peace. We had a fundraising item offering Peace Pickets that people can display in their yards.

With the kids we hope to instill a curiosity about nonviolence and a yearning to find the truth in their lives. We see them respond well to words like ‘belonging,’ and ‘kindness,’ and ‘compassion’ so we feel we are on the right track. With our adult group we strive to get them active in positive peacebuilding in their everyday lives and to join us in efforts to keep violence down in our town and the county. We are happy to note that with nonviolence education we are seeing a decrease in physical violence and a more welcoming and healthy community attitude.”

Be sure to keep checking in for more action reports from around the world.