We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the community members, sponsors and volunteers who have been involved in the peaceful adventures of growing the Whistler Week of Peace Celebrations in 2012. Peace begins within each of us and in September 2010 we began the goals to shed light, encourage, share and free the spirit within all of us through the celebrations of peace.

Over the past three years we have grown together with the community by sharing in these experiences and the gifts of peace, the following activities are just a few of the treasures we have enjoyed. We began by listening to our grandmothers speak of reconciliation and sharing their indigenous ways, we have drummed to a unified heartbeat and meditated our way to peace of mind. We continue to light the World Peace Flame in the Whistler Olympic Plaza each year and rejoice with our local Whistler Children's Chorus and Whistler Singers to spread the sounds of peace. Some won a day of peace and others had the chance to speak their peace. We have raised funds for local groups in need and for global areas in crisis. We invited guests in harmony to share how they Peace it Together so we may begin to learn the Art of Peace, through film, workshops, arts, culture and communications.

The work of peace is a global effort and every positive celebration in the area is a step forward, we are very happy that our energy of peace is spilling over into other communities in the Sea to Sky corridor.

This year, our Mayor, Nancy Wilhelm-Morden and council graciously recognized the United Nations International Day of Peace Sept. 21 and have proclaimed a week of peace in Whistler, Sept. 21 to Sept. 27. We are very excited and grateful for this beautiful opportunity to bring more awareness, hope and the opportunity for people to get involved in future celebrations to make a difference in their own lives, families, schools, workplaces, communities and the world.

One of the greatest gifts of peace is to reach out to assist another, we are very appreciative to the FE&A committee for their consideration of the Whistler Week of Peace Celebrations for Augmentation in 2013. I would like to personally thank Bob Andrea, Jan Jansen, John Rae and others at the RMOW for their patience, kindness and sharing of their knowledge as we learn the processes involved.

We look forward to bringing the world to Whistler to unite in the spirit of Peace in 2013.

Caterina Alberti

Director and Founder, Whistler Week of Peace