Earth Week Guide

A Guide for the Play for Peace​ Community ®​

Participating in the I love this Place! Serve the Earth Week.

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Table of Contents ❖ ❖

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Ways to Play Introduction.............................................p.3 Sections: ➢ #1 Activities ­ For the Earth........................................p.4 ➢ #2 Agents of Compassion..........................................p.5 How to Join the Earth Week.....................................p.6 Reporting your Earth Week Activities.......................p.6 About Play for Peace Organization...........................p.7

Love This Place! ​ Serve the Earth Week!​ is a​ ​ 9 day ​

global challenge to inspire acts of love, service, and compassion toward our Mother Earth and all life​ .​ Beginning on April 16th and continuing through April 24th, Serve the Earth Week is played globally between impassioned individuals who can form teams that represent cities, youth groups, faith and interfaith congregations, environmental organizations, businesses, governmental agencies and Indigenous communities. Players and teams strive together to come up with fun and creative ways to develop regenerative practices that celebrate life’s interconnectivity, while cultivating a responsibility to protect and restore the Earth for seven generations of life!

Love This Place​ !​ is grounded in appreciation and respect of one’s local ​ bioregion, honoring Indigenous leadership and practices in how best to care for Mother Earth while acknowledging our human place in the web of life. Love This Place! Serve the Earth Week is a way to explore how we can be compassionate toward the Earth, and act in way to discover compassion for ourselves, each other, and all members of the Earth Community.

Play for Peace​ is a global learning community that trains and supports young

leaders around the world who inspire compassion in action and friendships across divides of culture, religion and beliefs. Cooperative play and community service are our tools to teach kids, teenagers and adults that the "enemy" is someone not so different from themselves and to learn that when we work (and play!) together, peace is possible.

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Ways to Play

Playing Together Changes the World!

The Compassion Games are a powerful social tool designed to ignite, amplify, and catalyze compassionate action in communities around the world. By infusing the power of playfulness and compassion with the fun of friendly competition.

The Games offer a unique way to strive together to serve: each other, our own personal well-being, and the Earth.

The Ways to Play are grouped into two dimensions: ​ Activities for EARTH and AGENT of COMPASSION missions​ !​ However, the activities in this packet are just suggestions! You can make up your own activities to play during the Earth Week. In fact, ​ we can’t wait to hear about your original ideas! ​ It is a Play for Peace activity if follows our core values of cooperative, inclusive, caring and fun.

When you report on your activities your did, you (or your team) will get “points” for the number of service hours, volunteers participating and number of people reached by your act of compassion. This acknowledgement of your work will inspire others to be more compassionate. No one can lose the Compassion Games and as the more people play, the more people win!

There are several ways you, or a group of friends can join and play in Earth Week.

Learn more about some of the suggested Ways to Play below. There is no one correct way! Play for Peace volunteers, please include your volunteer hours on Games reports, Play for Peace Clubs all Practice Peace Sessions count, Play for Peace Trainers, all Play for Peace Training should be included!

Let the Games Begin!

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Section #1 ACTIVITIES ­ FOR EARTH ❖ SHOW YOU CARE FOR YOUR ENVIRONMENT ➢ We all know how it feels when you clean off your desk or straighten up your room. You have more energy, are more focused and can even breath a little easier! ➢ Encourage caring for the earth in your neighborhood by showing everyone how much you care about it. Pick up litter in your neighborhood, cut weeds or be creative in making your neighborhood a place that looks loved.

❖ LOVE YOUR TREES ➢ Plants and trees give us oxygen to breath! What a precious gift. ➢ Go out with your family and friends and hug a tree, plant seeds or water plants.

❖ BE RESOURCEFUL ➢ Ride your bike or walk instead of driving. ➢ Take shorter showers. ➢ Learn more about how to recycle in your area, teach what you learnt to someone else.

❖ TEAM SCULPTURE ➢ Clean up debris in a park or school and use debris to make a team sculpture as tall, or as interesting, as possible. ➢ Make sure to take safety precautions with the debris that is picked up. Natural components such as fallen leaves and twigs can be used as well!

❖ WALK YOUR TALK ➢ Walk in a group or in a pair and talk about “What nature means to you” and find out what nature means to your partner(s). ➢ While walking you can bring or take pictures of 2­3 nature related items picked from nature but please don’t pick live plants. Upon returning, share in the group why you picked those 2­3 things and how those items are related to you. Reflect on how a connection with the earth affects your work as a peace­builder.

❖ EARTH WEEK CHANT (​ Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink!)

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Section #2 AGENT of COMPASSION MISSIONS

“It has been discovered that a powerful antidote exists that can counteract the hate, hurt, and negativity that plagues our global community. This highly potent antidote is called “compassion,” and it exists within you.”

During each day of the World Interfaith Harmony Week, all players will receive ​ Agent of Compassion Missions​ that offers tangible ideas and inspiration for ways to play. Agents of Compassion continue to be a simple and meaningful way to bring compassion to life for oneself, others, and the Earth! They are a great supplement to service projects as well.

WAYS TO PLAY ​ as an ​ Agent of Compassion

❖ Receive your daily missions via email every day throughout the games. ➢ Make sure Play for Peace has your current and correct email address ➢ Wait to receive your daily email throughout the games for great ideas on how to play. ➢ Mission received, mission accepted? If this mission inspires you and/or your team to act, than please stop reading and go have some fun! ➢ Mission accomplished? Please take a few more moments to reflect and share by reporting​ in on your mission.

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How can I join Earth Week?

You can join as individual or team with your Play for Peace Club, classroom, or group of friends/co­workers. By clicking the link ​ here​ . This one form signs you up for all Compassion Games events throughout the year! There is no cost to join!

Use this “Play for Peace ­ Ways to Play” as a resource guide for both individuals and teams. Before Love This Place! Serve the Earth Week, you can connect with organizers to plan and promote your activities.

Playing Earth Week!

First and foremost, ​ PLAY​ ! Be generous, compassionate and have fun! Once you have completed an activity though, it is time to share it with others! Click ​ here​ to fill­out a short report and in doing so, help inspire others with your Acts of Compassion.

We are here to support you! ​ If you need any further assistance during or at the end of the games submitting your reports, please let me know! Email me directly at amanda@playforpeace.org.

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@ Play for Peace Overview Play for Peace (PFP), a non­profit INGO based in Chicago. Play for Peace is a community of people who are, right now, creating a world that fosters coexistence.Children, youth and adults from communities in conflict, are deciding to choose compassion and practice coexistence, and they are learning to do this through the joy of play. Through cooperative play, we have a universal and non­threatening platform around which people can come together and learn. Play creates a gateway to moments when differences dissolve, fear melts away, and we see what connects us rather than what divides us.

Mission To bring together children, youth and organizations from communities in conflict, using cooperative play to create laughter, compassion and peace​ .

Goals Play for Peace Program ​ changes young lives, educates children and transforms communities, specifically​ : ● Creating safe environments in which people of all ages can experience the joy of play. ● Promoting positive relationships among people of societies in conflict. ● Fostering leaders for peace around the world. ● Building self­sustaining learning communities in which all of our region's work interdependently to build a more peaceful world.

Play for Peace Method

LAUGHTER ⇛ COMPASSION ⇛ PEACE

Join Play for Peace Individuals and Communities join us through our Global Learning Community ​ receiving training, educational resources and cultural exchange opportunities​ that promote lifelong learning and development for adult mentors, youth leaders and compassionate children. Find out more about how to join Play for Peace ​ here​ .

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