Originally published in the Greenfield Recorder

SARAH PIRTLE

Published: 05-12-2025 1:01 PM

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“Weaving Circles of Peace: What Dialogue Looks Like” will be offered in two locations in Franklin County this month. Both events, which are free and open to the public, begin with the showing of a short film about young people’s peace discoveries at Journey Camp, held at Woolman Hill in Deerfield for 30 years.

On Wednesday, May 14, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Greenfield Public Library Community Room, the emphasis will be on the fruition of 30 years of teaching cooperation and a love of nature. The film was created by Lucie McCormick, who grew up in Shelburne Falls and lived across the street from Sarah Pirtle, a peace educator who is the founder and director of Journey Camp and author of five peacebuilding books, including “Better Together: Caring and Including Instead of Bullying.”

Then, on Friday, May 16, at 6:30 p.m. at the Arms Library in Shelburne Falls, the presentation will have an emphasis on dialogue. As a member of the editorial team that created a new book about Hands Across the Hills, Pirtle will describe the project, a multi-year effort to bring together progressives in western Massachusetts and more conservative residents of rural eastern Kentucky for conversations about their political and cultural differences.

The Traprock Center for Peace & Justice asked Pirtle to start Journey Camp in 1994 because she was a graduate school teacher training students and teachers in methods of talking out conflicts. Today, the Journey Camp summer session has 55 people, including campers ages 7 to 11, young teens in leadership training and a large adult staff. The film shows a dialogue method that is a favorite activity at Journey Camp.

Thanks Sarah, for all your work — and this new film!
the Traprock community