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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, M ay 24 ,2 01 8 | 14 • Free Blood Glucose Monitor & Teaching • Free Blood Pressure Check • Compounding Friendly Professional Team... where your total health is our goal! hours Mon.-Fri. 9am-7pm • Sat. 9am-4pm 519-747-0320 373 Bridge St. Waterloo www.thpharmacy.com We listed our pervious home twenty eight years ago when Bob Perkes was known as Mr.Lakeshore! This April, we did not hesitate to list our current home with Bob and within five days our house was sold! List your house with confidence when selecting the professional real estate agent Bob Perkes. -Lise and Harry Merkel Bob Perkes sales representative OFFICE: 519-885-0200 CELL: 519-588-0121 email: info@kwtopteam.com web: www.bobperkes.ca PROUD REAL ESTATE SERVICE FOR 30 YRS Brokerage "Independently Owned and operated" BUSINESS Visit waterloochronicle.ca for more coverage A local social enter- prise called Peaceworks is asking local students and schools to join them in an event that hopes to pro- mote conflict resolution at home and abroad. Peaceworks, no to be confused with PeaceWorks Technology Solutions an- other local B corporation that provides technical support while practicing business in an ethical way, came out of the peace incu- bator program at Conrad Grebel College and his headed by Stephen Jar- nick. It's mission is to empow- er student peacemakers, and it is hosting Peace Day Ontario event May 31 for students from Grade 6 to Grade 12 free at the Paris Fairgrounds. It will fea- ture inspirational guest speakers and indie artists like Kitchener's own Alysha Brilla and Water- loo's Jojo Worthington in a WE Day like event that hopes to promote peace and give its participants the tools to achieve it. "I'm so proud of this whole lineup," said Jar- nick, with details available www.peaceworks.tv. Jarnick has partnered with the Mennonite Cen- tral Committee and has drawn inspiration from a Guelph-based tech firm called Givesome in Guelph to fund the project which expects to have 2,000 par- ticipants this year. He hopes it eventually grows to be a twice a year event that does everything from tackle violence in schools to offering programming for at risk youth to find bet- ter alternatives than incar- ceration. "Givesome is an app that is about to explode in Canada," said Jarnick. "It allows you to donate $2, $5 or $10 to a charity or a pro- ject and you get a video back in a few weeks that shows you what happened with your donation - it's as simple as that," said Jar- nick. "Their tag line is Give a little, see some good and they are becoming a multi- million dollar entity. "We're running parallel with them and we're creat- ing a for-profit holding company for all our intel- lectual assets and proper- ty and that will help sup- port our nonprofit work." Coming up with a way to achieve sustainability has become a very real is- sue for social enterprises, and Jarnick hopes to put Peaceworks on the road to growth and sustainability to expand its reach across the province and the coun- try. The goal is to reach out to kids identified by the schools dealing with anger and violence and hopefully prevent the recent trage- dies seen in places like Parkland, Fla. "In fact I keep a picture of school shooter Nicholas Cruz on my computer." said Jarnick. "There were a lot of signals that this kid had problems, and we'd like to develop something that has a shot of turning him around and people like him." The interview came be- fore another school shoot- ing in Texas resulted in the death of 10 more innocent victims to school violence, and Jarnick hopes they can do the prevention work needed. Peaceworks has built ties with police departments and school boards to secure that work. "It would be an interac- tive online program where kids can reach different levels and play video games and have a reward system that tries to chan- nel that aggression," said Jarnick. The rewards might be something as simple as a Tim Hortons gift card, and incentives to try to rein- force positive outcomes and alternatives. "We load a gift card up for them, and they'll have peer groups made up of re- al people to help them along with a support group," said Jarnick. "That would be an international thing for us where we sell subscriptions, and hope- fully draw the interest of big companies willing to fund these projects." But it also requires stu- dent peacemakers, and a grassroots effort to build the networks and have safety nets in place for kids who are falling through the cracks. That will come with Peace Day Ontario events that Jarnick hopes to continue to grow, and is already planning an event next year at the Milton Fairgrounds that he hopes attracts 20,000 people by tapping into the Greater Toronto Area. "It will be easy to do if the schools want to send them because it will be free," said Jarnick. "This is something that schools can get behind to build that capacity in their schools. "We're not on a soapbox and yelling at people about how terrible they are for being violent, and I may be a total pacifist and a Hippie from days gone by, but if we can get people 70 to 80 per cent there it would be a huge win. Something we can all agree on is achiev- ing a less violent world is a good thing. " The efforts will also go to support the Mennonite Central Committee, which has done great work in di- saster relief and interna- tional development, but was looking for ways to promote peace especially in these turbulent times. Kim Lester, the new asso- ciate executive director of the local chapter, said their work is dependent on establishing peace. "This is an area that has always intrigued me - peace building - and what does that look like," said Lester. "It is really the base that everything else is built on. If you don't have peace in a community you'll have nothing else. You can do all the develop- ment and relief work, and build a school or establish a water supply and in two minutes it's obliterated by a bomb. "Our peace work is inte- gral, and all our other work is based off that." Peaceworks holds its first event to give peace a chance Peace Day Ontario hopes to grow into major event for local social enterprise BOB VRBANAC bvrbanac@waterloochronicle.ca Don't be a LitterBug! Please keep our community clean.