March 30, 2006 • 7:00pm
Christian Brothers University Theatre

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View Photos of the Award Dinner
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Featured Speaker • Bishop Thomas Gumbleton

Bishop Gumbleton is a long-time peace and justice activist. Like Dr. Vanderhaar, Bishop Gumbleton has a long history with Pax Christi, the International Catholic Peace Movement. He was a founding President of Pax Christi USA.

Both he and Dr. Vanderhaar were Pax Christi Ambassadors of Peace. As a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops he served on the committee that produced the influential peace pastoral letter “The Challenge of Peace” (1983).

He has traveled widely in the cause of peace and justice, including to Iraq as part of a Voices in the Wilderness delegation, to Columbia with the Columbia Support Network, Afghanistan with the Global Exchange Delegation with Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. He has participated in civil disobedience, fasts, and vigils for a variety of peace and justice causes. He has served as a Bishop since 1968, and continues to pastor in inner city Detroit at St. Leo Church. In word and deed Bishop Gumbleton has acted for peace with justice.

Student Peace Awardee • Laura Dallas, Rhodes College '06

Laura has been active for four years in hunger and homeless programs in Memphis, directing the student-operated Souper Contact program. For the past two years she has focused on the Memphis Living Wage Campaign, interning and volunteering with the Mid-South Interfaith Network. This past summer she interned with the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington D.C. Laura is also a frequent participant in Servant Leadership. She is currently the elected moderator of the Kinney Program at Rhodes, facilitating student leaders that mobilize volunteers and interns campus-wide to serve weekly in local churches, non-profits and community organizations. Additionally she has been a campus organizer with the College Democrats and the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. As a leader and peacemaker, Laura is a great example of someone who consistently combines acts of compassion, service and personal caring with a search for the root causes of social problems and a commitment to justice.

2006 Vanderhaar Symposium Steering Committee
Leo Arnoult
Lisa Bell
Therese Cullen
Jacob Flowers
Dr. Barbara Frankle
Dr. Peter Gathje
Rev. Albert Kirk
Dr. Margaret Miller
Br. Patrick O’Brien
Carolyn Oldenburg
Deacon Curtiss Talley
Ray Terry
Br. Rob Veselsky
Janice Vanderhaar, Chair
Cory Dugan, Graphic Design
John Kerr, Marketing