Interviews at Children's Crusade 2000 - a recent 3-day children's festival in Pennsylvania.
Producer: Andrew Zimmerman Uploaded by: Andrew Zimmerman
"If children can get along, maybe one day adults can too." Armed with this positive attitude, the children of the New Meadow Run Bruderhof Community in western Pennsylvania conceived and carried out Children's Crusade 2000 on August 10-13. The first Children's Crusade sponsored by the Bruderhof was a three-day march against the death penalty in 1997. Children's Crusade 2000, however, extended the boundaries of the fight against death and violence into a celebration of life by kids from all around the world. For the 1200 people who attended, it will be hard to forget. After all, it's not every day that children from 43 nations are brought together simply to enjoy each other's friendship. For three days in mid-August, hundreds of children worked, played, danced, and sang together - reaching across adult boundaries and sharing cultures. While special guests such as former boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, renowned folk singer Pete Seeger, and anti-death penalty activist Helen Prejean did attend the event, the focus was on nurturing interaction between children of different nationalities and ethnicities. Children came from all over the world to make new make friends and develop relationships that they will foster long after they return home. Most Children's Crusade attendees were either children, or adults who spend their lives caring for, working for, and sacrificing for children. Bruderhof Radio spoke with both children and adults at Children's Crusade 2000 to gain their insights into purpose of the weekend event, and learn of the power of children in a world seemingly dominated by uncaring adults.
Bruderhof Radio is a semi-monthly production of the Bruderhof Communities, www.bruderhof.org. Bruderhof Radio is provided free of charge to all public, progressive, and community radio stations. For more info, see our website at www.freespeech.org/bruderhof or contact the producers at (800) 778-8461ext 239 or redzim@bruderhof.com.