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CONTACT: David Roberts, 619-916-8284

San Diego Youth Will Walk to Buy Wheelchairs for Injured Middle Eastern Children

Youth from religious organizations and groups from all over San Diego County will walk 12 miles around Mission Bay on Saturday April 16 to buy wheelchairs for children maimed by Middle East violence.

Participants in the trek, including Muslim, Jewish, and Christian youth, will raise funds for the Wheelchairs to the Holy Land Project, which aims to send 1,000 wheelchairs to Israel and Palestine this summer. Each $75 raised will pay for one wheelchair. The donor will receive a certificate with a photograph of the recipient child sitting in the chair the money bought.

The walk is sponsored by Service for Peace (www.ServiceForPeace.org), an international youth service organization. It will start at 10 am at the Model Yacht Pond on Vacation Isle in Mission Bay, and walkers will return there in the afternoon after circumscribing a heart-shaped path around the bay.

A map of the walk and other details are available online at www.walkforchairs.org, where people, including adults, who wish to participate in the walk, may sign up online. This event is one of many being held nationwide April 15-17 for "National Youth Service Day," a project of Youth Service America, of which Service for Peace is a national partner.

Wheelchairs to the Holy Land, sponsored in part by local Rotary Clubs, was founded by two Rotarians, Miko Peled of Coronado, an Israeli Jew born in Jerusalem, and Nader Elbanna of Escondido, a Palestinian Muslim born in Nazareth. They became friends after meeting in the US, their adopted home, and dedicated themselves to the cause of peace in the Middle East.

"For $75," said Mr Peled, "we take a child that has to crawl, and can't play, and can't go to school, and has to be taken care of 24 hours a day and suddenly give him the ability to go to school, to play, and to be independent. Our goal is to raise a thousand wheelchairs and divide them equally, 500 to each side, and in that to send a message that Israelis and Palestinians can work together."

Both Mr. Peled and Mr. Nader will participate in the walk with their families. Mr. Peled's father was an Israeli general who later devoted his life for peace. His niece was killed by a terrorist bomb in 1997. Mr. Elbanna was a captain in the Jordanian army whose closest friend died in his arms during the al-Karama battle against Israel in 1967.

"We chose to be friends," said Mr. Elbanna. "But not just by talking, not just to sit in an air-conditioned room with a cup of coffee and talk about peace. We want to take action. These wheelchairs are not just plastic and stainless steel. They are a thousand ambassadors, messengers, and we need to send them from the US to the Holy Land with a flame of hope."

Service for Peace (www.ServiceForPeace.org) is an international youth service organization started in Washington DC in 2002 to develop projects and educational programs that motivate volunteers to serve in their communities on a continual basis. Its programs combine service, learning and a fresh perspective on the problems and solutions we face in building peace.

Members of many other groups are pitching in to make the walk a success, including members of the San Diego Family Church, the Masjidul Taqwa Mosque, the Plymouth Congregational Church, the Rotary District 5340 Pathways for Peace Commitee, the San Diego Church of Scientology, the San Diego Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, and many others.