User:Awaken2sun/sandbox
{db-spam}} Lisa Schultz (born 1965) is an American marketing and new media and arts entrepreneur and founder of the non-profit organization, The Peace Project, and TheWhole9.com, an international social networking site for artists and other creatives.[1]
Background
Lisa Schultz was born in 1965 and currently lives in Los Angeles. She has also lived in New York, NY, Chicago, IL, and San Francisco, CA. She has one daughter, Willow Gordon-Schultz, and one son, Tejan Schultz, whom she adopted from Sierra Leone, Africa.[2]
Life and career
Following over a decade working in the advertising industry, Schultz founded Out Of Bounds, an experiential marketing company in 1999. Clients included Napster, Virgin Atlantic, Elvis Presley Enterprises and jetBlue. In 2007, Schultz founded TheWhole9.com, a social networking site where creatives could meet and showcase their work. Immediately after, she opened an art gallery, The Whole 9 Gallery, to display work from members of the online community and emerging artists.[3]
In 2010, galvanized by the work of peace activist Jeremy Gilley and photojournalist Pep Bonet who shot a series of photographs showing Sierra Leone's amputee soccer players reclaiming their lives after Sierra Leone's Civil War, The Peace Project, powered by the social networking site TheWhole9.com, was launched. Sierra Leone was identified as the starting point for their work which has since expanded to include disaster relief and community building work in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.
Immediately after launching, artists from around the world were mobilized to submit their art to The Peace Project's 1st Annual Call for Artists via TheWhole9.com. Since then, artists from around the world have submitted peace-related art which results in an annual art exhibit that travels throughout the United States. The Call for Artists and traveling exhibits have helped to provide funding for The Peace Project's work including Operation Rise.[4]
Humanitarian work
Operation Rise, Sierra Leone
The Peace Project's inaugural endeavor was in Sierra Leone; Operation Rise provided crutches to people, many of whom, due to the loss of limbs through amputation during the civil war as well as disabilities, had little personal mobility.
On September 11, World Peace Day 2011, The Peace Project distributed 10,000 pairs of crutches to amputees, polio survivors and women and children across the entire country of Sierra Leone.[5][6]
According to Mahimbo Mdoe, the country representative for UNICEF which supported The Peace Project on this effort, a pair of crutches can change someone's life "For these people, it will mean they are able to move around," he said, adding that it will allow men and women to hold jobs, while children will be able to get to and from school. "To the person who gets a pair, it will be everything."[7]
Peace Tips
During the planning stages of Operation Rise, it was discovered that the plastic tips of crutches wear out within one month at which point crutches begin to deteriorate, thereby hindering the sustainability of crutch distribution efforts. In early 2011, The Peace Project began working with Thomas Fetterman, an inventor who specializes in crutches and crutch tips, to find a solution. Utilizing a crutch tip perfected by Fetterman over a twenty-five-year period that can last up to one year, Fetterman and The Peace Project created a design that has a peace sign cut into the bottom -- with each step, a peace sign imprint is left in the ground.[8]
Family to Family, Philippines
After Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest typhoon recorded at landfall, devastated portions of the Philippines on November 8, 2013, The Peace Project sought a way to assist some of the people that had been left homeless. Working with a team of architects and engineers, The Peace Project designed a small house that has about $500 in building materials and can be built within a day. Utilizing this design and a unique model whereby for a donation of $500, individuals or organizations can select a family and sponsor the building of their house, and with the support of local tradesmen and community volunteers, The Peace Project completed their first community of forty houses on Bantayan Island on November 8, 2014, the anniversary of Typhoon Haiyan.[9][10]
Peace Center, Philippines
In May 2015, The Peace Project completed a Peace Center on Bantayan Island in the Philippines from which a cooperative will be operated, vocational skills training will take place, a Farmer's Market will be hosted and micro-lending will be conducted.
Peace Center, Sierra Leone
The Peace Project is in the design phase for the Peace Center, Sierra Leone, a healing and community center that will be built in the Kailahun District, adjacent to an infamous site of violence during Sierra Leone's civil war, the Slaughter House. This Peace Center is scheduled for completion mid-2016.
References
- ^ Lee, Booyeon (August 13, 2007). "Clique Art". No. Volume 29, Number 33. Los Angeles Business Journal.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help);|issue=has extra text (help) - ^ Lynch, Renee (September 21, 2011). "Culver City gallery owner gives crutches to Sierra Leone disabled". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ Lee, Booyeon (August 13, 2007). "Clique Art". No. Volume 29, Number 33. Los Angeles Business Journal.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help);|issue=has extra text (help) - ^ Haas, Cherie. "2011 Peace Project: A Call for Artists". Artist Network. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ Morris, Lynn (September 21, 2011). "Operation Rise: Hope from the Ashes for Amputees". Eco Salon. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ Morris, Lynn (December 7, 2011). "Disabled in Sierra Leone make gains". Global Post. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ Lynch, Renee (September 21, 2011). "Culver City gallery owner gives crutches to Sierra Leone disabled". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ Devon Wilke, Lorraine (November 11, 2014). "Some People Talk About Change, Lisa Schultz of The Peace Project Makes It". Huffington Post. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ "Peace Project Helps Rebuild Village in Philippines Devastated by Typhoon Haiyan". No. March 3, 2014. Asian Week. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ Take Two (November 7, 2014). "The Peace Project builds homes in areas still recovering from Typhoon Haiyan". KPCC. Retrieved 15 August 2015.