By Annette Walker

A big wave from the sea swept a multitude of starfish onto the beach and left them upside down. A little boy walked by and was distressed by what he saw. He walked around the beach and began turning over starfish and then he tossed them back into the ocean.
An old man like me came along and said to the boy, "What on earth are you doing?" The little boy smiled and said, "I'm turning them over and returning them to the water." The old man laughed at him and shouted, "Are you crazy? Why are you spending your time like this?" The little boy was a bit puzzled, but simply said, "The starfish cannot live upside down and on land, so I'm putting them back where they are supposed to be."
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu told this story, "The Tale of the Starfish," to a crowd of 3,000 young people at the University of Denver in September. The young people came from 31 countries to hear the South African cleric during the 10th anniversary of PeaceJam.
PeaceJam is an international educational program that brings young people together with Nobel Prize laureates. Founded in 1996 by Denver residents Ivan Savanjieff and Dawn Engle, PeaceJam's goal is to inspire a new generation of peacemakers to transform themselves, their local communities and the world. More than 120 PeaceJam youth conferences have been held worldwide, with more than 500,000 teenagers taking part and 300,000 new service projects being developed.
PeaceJam's 2006 theme was “Change Starts Here.” Among the topics discussed were tutoring programs in Loveland and Memphis, Tenn.; demanding access to running water in the rural areas of Costa Rica; HIV-AIDS work in Guatemala; conflict resolution and an anti-violence campaign in California; a counter-military recruiting effort in Oregon; raising money for community health clinics in Southern California; organizing in Olathe, Kan. against the ongoing genocide in the Sudan; an office and neighborhood recycling project in Jackson, Miss.; and working on diversity issues in England.
Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, expressed great confidence in the youth he addressed.
“You are idealistic and willing to reach for the stars,” he said. “You are the ones who can help make a better world. A little act of kindness by one person does make a difference.”
He then led the crowd in a rousing chant of, “I can make a difference!”
In a way, Tutu played an indirect role in founding the organization, Suvanjieff said. In the early 1990s, Suvanjieff lived in northwest Denver, where he struck up a conversation with some neighborhood boys who had become gang members.

“I asked them who was the president of the United States, and they said they didn't know," he said. “We kept talking and got on the subject of South Africa and I mentioned Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The boys were Mexican-American, but I was surprised that they knew all about Tutu and his anti-apartheid work in South Africa. I then told them about Tutu's Nobel Peace Prize.”

Suvanjieff later discussed this incident with Engle, who had worked as a congressional aide and met the Dalai Lama, a Buddhist holy man and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Suvanjieff and
Suvanjieff and Engle flew to India to meet with the Dalai Lama to talk about a project involving Nobel laureates interacting with young people. The result was the first PeaceJam in 1996.

This year was marked by the presence of 10 Nobel awardees. There were supposed to have been 12, but Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for the past 10 years by the Burmese government and Wangari Maathai of Kenya was in China and also unable to attend. Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her grassroots environmental work in East Africa.

One session of PeaceJam was devoted to writing letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Security Council urging them to demand Aung’s immediate release and the return of democracy in Burma. A few days prior to the conference’s opening, the Security Council agreed to deliberate on the Burma issue.

Other Nobel Prize winners present were East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta, who lived in exile for two decades because of Indonesia's invasions of his island nation; Jody Williams of Vermont, who won the prize for her work against the placement of landmines during military conflict; Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who received the prize for helping to negotiate peace in Central America; Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina for his leadership in human rights in Latin America; Rigoberta Menchu Tum of Guatemala for her leadership in human rights work among indigenous people in Central America; The Dalai Lama for his nonviolent efforts in the conflict between China and his native Tibet and for his general promotion of peace; Shirim Ebadi for her efforts for women's rights and democracy in Iran and the Middle East; and Maireas Corrigan Maguire and Betty Williams, both of Northern Ireland and who led peace efforts in the mid-1970s.

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PeaceJam’s agenda included this 10-point “Global Call To Action” on the following issues:

• Unequal access to water and other natural resources
• Racism and hate
• The spread of global disease
• Extreme poverty
• Social justice and human rights for all
• Rights for women and children, and their role as leaders
• Environmental degradation
• Nuclear weapons and the international arms trade
• Disarming our armed consciousness
• Focus on human security to create true security