A
Luethipetersoncamps.org é uma ONG que promove acampamentos de verão, todos os
anos, em 6 (seis) ou 7 (sete) países diferentes com jovens divididos por idade
de 9 a 14 anos e de 14 a 17 anos.
Os acampamentos
duram um 1 (um) mês e os grupos são formados por jovens de nacionalidades
diferentes, com a maior diversidade possível em termos de crenças, raça, língua,
condição sócio-economica, etc. A mulher que criou isso, em 1947, tinha a
idéia de que se jovens convivessem desde muito cedo com o diferente,
seriam adultos mais tolerantes e compreensivos e não promoveriam guerras. Em
1947 ocorreu o primeiro acampamneto e desde então tem ocorrido todos os anos.
ARMIN LÜTHI, remembered
Armin Lüthi , Natalie Lüthi-Peterson’s husband
of 59 years, died of cancer September 10that his home in the Ecole d’Humanité.
With him were his four children, Doey, Molly, Chris and Piet.
There are so many ways to remember Armin.
Although music was his first passion, he was, first and foremost, an educator.
He taught math but he saw teaching opportunities everywhere. There are scores
of Ecole students who remain convinced that Armin loved to peel
potatoes. Every morning he would peel the Lüthi family’s allotment of potatoes
with great enthusiasm (and speed). Potato by potato he proved to students that
work could be fun, that menial tasks were beneath no-one, and the value of
everyone working together.
What Armin explicitly did NOT want his legacy to
be was that of a wise man, which he felt was not at all an accurate reflection.
The wise man image may be tough to erase. For one thing, many of his friends,
family and former students have a favorite Armin quote that could be construed
as wisdom. My favorite is, “There is no bad food. There is only insufficient
garlic!” (He once told me he had never said half the things people said he
did!)
Rather than providing answers, Armin asked
questions. He defined his own role, both in the Ecole and in LPC as that of
“Palace Fool” (his term.) By this he meant that he was simply the one holding
up the mirror so that truth would be reflected back. At LPC meetings, he would
listen to campers and counselors talk glowingly about their wonderful camp
experiences, and then he would ask, “But what was terrible in your
camp?” Because only in thinking about what had not gone well, could LPC
continue to improve. When directors at the Christmas Conference would report
how much fun the kids had had, Armin asked, “Is that enough? Is LPC just a
place for children to have fun?” He wasn’t being critical – like Natalie, he
often marveled at the impact of LPC on campers’ lives. He felt it was his job
to get us to continue to think about the whys and the hows, so that we would
keep trying to do better.
When we remember Armin we will remember his
violin and his years and years of leading singing. He loved to sing himself and
spent several summers singing with the Europa Cantat, but what we will always
cherish is the music he shared with us. When we sang well he was satisfied.
When we sounded terrible, he had us try again the next day. He was a demanding
taskmaster but one with great humor. His facial expressions alone could
convulse students. And he inspired us to make music a bigger part of our lives.
Armin and Natalie were a team, working together
on their own family, on LPC and on the Ecole all of their lives. That they
could do all three at the same time with such fantastic results is a formidable
life’s achievement. The stories of the challenges they faced, the people they
worked with and the educational methods they pioneered could fill several
volumes. For those who have been lucky enough to know both of them, they filled
our hearts.
- Gigi Wizowaty
Members of Luethi-Peterson Camps believe that
good human relations and responsible community living can best be learned by
personal experience at an early age.
We believe that strife among people of different
national, racial, and religious backgrounds stems from fear of the unknown,
that both fear and ignorance can be overcome by bringing together young people
from differing backgrounds and giving them the opportunity to live, work, play,
and learn together over a period of several weeks in summer camps.
It is our firm conviction that such experience
provides the necessary basis for a better understanding among peoples as well
as the independent thinking, self-reliance, and sense of responsibility needed
by the individual participants to deal with a world which grows steadily
smaller and a world population increasingly interdependent.
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