Go Muskies!

Our three quick days in Muscatine focused around the Muscatine schools (Go Muskies!)--- our beneficiary was the Muscatine Community School Foundation, and we led our Stand for Peace classes in 48 classrooms in one day, plus visited another 15 classrooms at the high school. Our show in the high school auditorium was sold out, and we had people waiting to see if they could get late seating.

Muscatine was especially fun for me, because Lorene Lewison, my high school show choir director who originally connected me to Up with People, lives there and it was so neat to see her and her family.

We also met with a really fascinating organization called the "Stanley Foundation", which is based in Muscatine. They started as an organization that funded informal interaction between international leaders that served at the United Nations. It brings a whole new meaning to "those who play together stay together." They would host retreats, tennis tournaments, other events in the 1950s for UN delegates so they could interact in a more relaxed environment. Now they have expanded and morphed into a foreign policy think tank. They have a number of programs, including producing international segments for NPR, and they produce videos and discussion questions on international issues that church groups, community leaders, college campuses, etc., can receive from them free of charge to host a current events discussion. They led for us a discussion on peacekeeping missions (like well-digging in Djibouti) by the US military, and if that is an appropriate task for them, and if not, what other organization should be doing it. Check them out at www.stanleyfoundation.org