Awareness UNlimited News

Marshall Carbee: Green Artist

2009-06-24T15:27:33Z

Marshall Carbee is a local artist and environmentalist working to make the world a healthier and more beautiful place. He uses natural products in his artwork and has developed an all natural soy gesso product.

He's someone you should know about!!!

CARBEE SOY GESSO

The world's first and only non-toxic, bio-based, eco-friendly professional artist gesso made from readily renewable resources and recycled materials.

Learn more at:
www.carbeesoygesso.com www.marshallcarbee.com

Watch YouTube ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkHSNIveD8s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-xZsGzzxtc

New Website Address

2009-06-24T15:19:08Z

To be consistent with our non-profit status, we recently changed our website and e-mail addresses. If you are reading this because you used our old addresses, please make note of the following changes and use them in the future:

website address: www.awarenessunlimited.org
e-mail addresses: deb@awarenessunlimited.org and membership@awarenessunlimited.org

Remember, too, to sign up for our RSS feeds for continuing updates on what is happening with Awareness UNlimited.

Spring Membership Drive - 2009

2009-05-26T22:30:07Z

Since our launch as a non-profit corporation in September 2008, Awareness UNlimited has successfully moved forward with our mission to facilitate awareness and diversity programming with schools, businesses, civic groups/organizations, and communities, fostering understanding and respect, opening minds and opening worlds. Our Board of Trustees has welcomed two new members who bring impressive backgrounds and experience to our work, and we have established a strong member base of folks who support our efforts. We have produced events/activities of our own and co-sponsored events with other outstanding organizations in New Hampshire:

October 2008 - co-sponsored screening of the documentary, Beyond Belief, for area students, educators, and others at The Music Hall in Portsmouth with NH Film Festival including post-screening with Susan Retik Ger who was featured in the film

Fall-early winter - co-sponsored film/discussion series with Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies and Portsmouth Community Radio at Temple Israel in Portsmouth screening films to raise awareness about Holocaust survivors, rescuers, and Holocaust history

Spring 2009 - organized and promoted similar film/discussion series for Upper Valley Jewish Community and Dartmouth Hillel at Roth Center for Jewish Life in Hanover

March 2009 - Opening Worlds Series, a monthly presentation and discussion series designed to help raise community awareness about social, political, religious, cultural, wellness, career, and other diversity issues began

We look forward to continued growth and outreach in the coming months. Awareness UNlimited will again co-sponsor a special screening for schools and educators at the 2009 NH Film Festival in October, the Opening Worlds Series continues, and we are in the planning stages for continuing the film/discussion series for next fall/winter, in addition to developing plans for new programming.

At this time, I invite you to join us and show your support for Awareness UNlimited's work by becoming a member. Your membership helps support Awareness UNlimited in many ways:

Day-to-day operations
Marketing and promotions
Outreach to schools, corporations, and other groups
Development of awareness and diversity materials
Creation of financial assistance plans for groups wishing to host awareness and diversity programming
Support for our own events and activities

Please join now! The Membership Enrollment Form is available on our "Support" page. If you prefer to make your payment via credit card or direct deposit into our bank account, please click on the "Donate" button also located on the "Support" page. This links you to our Pay Pal account, a safe, secure method of online payment.

I encourage you to visit our other pages to find out more about the corporation and people associated with us, and participate in our blog.

We hope you will support us in reaching out to local, regional, state, national, and global communities in an effort to connect people and provide pro-active opportunities to help address the many and wide-ranging diversity and tolerance issues that touch us on a daily basis. We believe that raising awareness about these issues and putting faces to them makes a difference and helps steer the world away from conflict and misunderstanding. Your participation is most welcomed!

Peace, Deb Barry - Executive Director

Opening Worlds Series on Hiatus Until September 2009

2009-05-15T00:39:50Z

Having successfully piloted the Opening Worlds Series in March and April, the series will be taking a hiatus from May through August. The monthly series returns on the fourth Tuesday of each month beginning in September. Look for more information about the Opening Worlds Series posted here soon.

Sincere thanks to Erin Kennedy, founder of HopeCraft (www.hopecraft.org), and Laurie Wheeler, homeopathic practitioner (www.homeopathy2.com), our facilitators in March and April, for launching our series with such interesting and insightful presentations.

Arts Festival - May 9th - Visit Artists in Our Office Complex

2009-05-05T18:41:42Z

Rwandan Musician and UN Ambassador of Peace Jean Paul Samputu at UNH on April 27th

2009-04-21T17:14:32Z

Jean Paul Samputu

Rwandan Musician and Peace Ambassador

The Strafford Room

Memorial Union Building - UNH

7:30 pm

FREE and Open to the Public

"Forgiveness is the most powerful unpopular weapon against terrorism and atrocity."

- Jean Paul Samputu

Join UNH Stand in welcoming Jean Paul Samputu, a musician who survived the genocide in Rwanda. A winner of the prestigious KORA Award ("African Grammy)in 2003, Samputu travels the world as a cultural ambassador for Rwanda, bringing to his audiences traditional African singing, dancing, and drumming, and a message of peace and reconciliation.

Special thanks to these generous sponsors:

Student Activity Fee
The Center for International Education
The Diversity Support Coalition
The Political Science Department.

Angels of Austria: The Church That Reached Out to Holocaust Survivors Concludes Film Series at the Roth Center for Jewish Life on April 30th

2009-04-20T18:00:22Z

Hope and Remembering: Honoring and Healing, a four-part film and discussion series featuring Holocaust survivors, rescuers, and the history that affects us all, offers its final presentation on Thursday, April 30, at the Roth Center for Jewish Life. The series concludes with the screening of the personal documentary, Angels of Austria: The Church That Reached Out to Holocaust Survivors, accompanied by a discussion with its filmmaker, Judy C. Faust. This series is proudly sponsored by the Upper Valley Jewish Community - supporting education and life-long learning - and Dartmouth Hillel. The public is invited to attend.

Angels of Austria: The Church That Reached Out to Holocaust Survivors chronicles an Austrian church's attempts to reverse centuries of Anti-semitism in their hometown by inviting Jewish Holocaust survivors formerly of Wiener Neustadt to return for a Week of Reconciliation in 1995. Judy Faust accompanies her mother and together they embark on an emotional roller coaster ride of grief, compassion, and healing. Christians and Jews explore their painful pasts while creating historic milestones they hope will mark an era of friendship and understanding. But how will Judy's mother forgive the descendants of the Third Reich when she hasn't even forgiven herself for not saving her father?

The Coastal Journal of Maine remarks that, "The Q & A and discussion afterwards is as powerful as the movie!" Greg Bates of Common Courage Press states, "At a time when we can point to many bad choices human beings make, your project casts humanity in its best light."

Judy Faust, a former art teacher turned writer and videographer, founded What's Your Story, a business that connects history to family stories and the arts (www.connectyourstories.com). Angels...is her first movie presentation that is touring churches, synagogues, and schools.

Angels of Austria...is being presented on Thursday, April 30, at the Roth Center for Jewish Life, 5 Occom Ridge, Hanover, NH, beginning at 7 pm. Admission is free. For more information about this event, contact Carole Clarke at uvjc@valley.net or 603-646-0460.

Further information about the series sponsors is available at:

The Upper Valley Jewish Community www.uvjc.org
Dartmouth College Hillel www.dartmouth.edu/~hillel

Photos courtesy of Judy C. Faust:

Upper left: Trudy Faust with her aunt, Herta Gerstl, at the Week of Reconciliation, 1995
Lower right: Trudy Faust with her daughter, filmmaker Judith C. Faust

Alternative Health Care Options for Veterans to be Featured at Awareness UNlimited's Opening Worlds Series Presentation in Dover: Tuesday, April 28th

2009-04-15T18:03:15Z

Homeopathic health care is the focus of this month's Opening Worlds Series presentation sponsored by Awareness UNlimited of Dover. Laurie Wheeler, DiHom, a homeopathic practitioner and personal development coach since 1995, will present information about homeopathic health care and the newly opened Wellness Within clinic specifically offering care for veterans. The Opening Worlds Series: Homeopathic Health Care, part of a monthly presentation and discussion series designed to help raise community awareness about social, political, religious, cultural, wellness, career, and other diversity issues, will be held on Tuesday, April 28, at The Picker Building in Dover. The public is cordially invited to attend this event.

According to Ms. Wheeler, homeopathy is a system of medicine which recognizes our uniqueness, as we are all individuals and we react in our own way to illness and stress. Using the time-honored principle that like can be cured with like, homeopathy has taken a wide range of natural substances and carefully recorded the symptoms these substances cause in healthy people. Matching these substances as closely as possible to the individual and the particular symptoms that they are experiencing encourages their own healing energy to return them to a state of health. The results are often remarkable, bringing about cures that are rapid, gentle, and permanent. To resolve physical and mental health issues, many people today are taking an active part in their healthcare. They are tired of conventional medicine's uncertainty, side-effects from medication, or surgery as the answer to their problems. Those seeking a more natural or complementary medicine have surfaced. Conventional medicine is now being replaced or enhanced with homeopathy - for a more permanent, deeper effect and holistic change.

At Wellness Within, a new healthcare clinic in Kittery, ME, Ms. Wheeler has gathered a team of professional practitioners who are volunteering their healthcare services, using homeopathy, to local veterans. This type of clinic is the first of its kind in the seacoast area. Ms. Wheeler and her colleagues are all fully trained, have their own professional practices, and believe it is time to give back to all veterans. Homeopathic practitioners have been concerned about the increased need for treatment that veterans are, and in many cases, are not receiving, especially as the amount of medications for PTSD rise. The team at Wellness Within believes now is the time to share what they firmly are convinced is a better health approach - one that is safe, gentle, and offers a cost-effective way to heal one's body, mind, and spirit.

Ms. Wheeler began her journey with homeopathy in 1992 when she and her family became very ill and found no relief through conventional medicine. She discovered homeopathy and was surprised by the incredible healing success it provided. This prompted her to learn as much as she could about it, begin training, and become a practitioner (www.homeopathy2.com ). Ms. Wheeler hosts a live radio program called Journey Into Wellness at Portsmouth Community Radio: WSCA 106.1FM. She and her colleagues are committed to raising the health and potential of all humankind.

The Opening Worlds Series: Homeopathic Health Care presentation takes place on Tuesday, April 28, from 7:30-9:30 pm in the Third Floor Conference Room, The Picker Building, 2 Washington St., Dover, NH. Admission is free. For further information, please contact Deb Barry, Awareness UNlimited Executive Director at: deb@awareness-unlimited.com or 603-520-2933.

Film/Discussion Series at the Roth Center for Jewish Life Continues with Telling Their Stories - NH Holocaust Survivors Speak Out

2009-03-19T18:59:21Z

Hanover, NH: Hope and Remembering: Honoring and Healing, a four-part film/discussion series, continues on Thursday, April 2, featuring Telling Their Stories - NH Holocaust Survivors Speak Out. The film, the third in this series, provides insight into the lives of four Holocaust survivors who eventually settled in New Hampshire, after many perilous journeys to escape the Nazis. Telling Their Stories... will be shown on Thursday, April 2, at 7 pm at the Roth Center for Jewish Life in Hanover, NH. Thomas White, Educational Outreach Coordinator at The Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College, will facilitate the discussion. The series is proudly sponsored by the Upper Valley Jewish Community - supporting education and life-long learning -and Dartmouth Hillel. The public is invited and educational materials will be available.

Telling Their Stories - New Hampshire Holocaust Survivors Speak Out shares the stories of four Holocaust survivors during WWII Europe and the paths that brought them from their home countries of Germany, Poland, and Hungary to New Hampshire. Stephan Lewy, from Germany, lived many years in orphanages in Germany and Paris, escaped from France in 1940, and served in Patton's Army as a "Ritchie Boy." Joseph Regensburger lived with his grandparents for several years before escaping Germany to reunite with his family in France. He served in the French underground and eventually escaped to Switzerland where he and his family were interned. Ruth Segal, from Poland, hoped to study medicine in Switzerland, but was prevented from leaving when the Germans invaded Poland. She eventually escaped with the help of "Righteous Among the Nations" Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Much of her family that was left behind died in Treblinka. Anna Berkovits Klein, from Hungary, was forced, along with her family, to move into a Jewish ghetto, the first of many moves from ghettos to barracks to concentration camps, including Stresshof and Bergen-Belsen.

These four survivors tell stories that are remarkable and move viewers on many levels. They have wrestled with many difficult issues and speak openly about them throughout the film. Anna Klein states, "After the concentration camp I didn't want to hear anything about any kind of religion or God...My God, as I knew him as a child, was a caring God and this God abandoned me...until I met my husband and he pointed out to me that God didn't do this to us, people did. And then I made my peace with God." Ruth Segal remarks, "I miss my family. I wish they were alive...I resent even seeing young Germans...the guilt is their fathers...When I see young Germans I say to myself: Where are my brother's and sister's children? Why aren't they here?" Issues and conflicts such as these touch not only the survivors' lives, but often reach into the lives of the film's audiences.

This film by NH filmmaker David DeArville was produced by Robert Spiegelman and Fred Wolff in association with the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies.

Telling Their Stories - NH Holocaust Survivors Speak Out is being presented on Thursday, April 2, at the Roth Center for Jewish Life, 5 Occom Ridge, Hanover, NH, beginning at 7 pm.

Admission is free.

For more information about this event or the film series, contact Carole Clarke at uvjc@valley.net or 603-646-0460 .

Further information about the series sponsors is available at:

The Upper Valley Jewish Community (http://www.uvjc.org)
Dartmouth College Hillel (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~hillel).

HopeCraft Presentation Launches Awareness UNlimited's Opening Worlds Series in Dover

2009-03-17T20:36:43Z

The Opening Worlds Series, a monthly presentation and discussion series designed to help raise community awareness about local, state-wide, national, and global issues and activities, will begin on Tuesday, March 24, at The Picker Building in Dover. The series is sponsored by Awareness UNlimited and will be held on the fourth Tuesday evening of each month. The public is cordially invited to attend these events.

Erin Kennedy, founder of HopeCraft (www.hopecraft.org), launches the series with a presentation about this NH 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working to empower women in Africa. Many of the women are affected by HIV/AIDS and are often left to support children on their own. The women create beautiful jewelry, baskets, textiles, and horn products, but lack a viable local market. HopeCraft transports the crafts to the United States and sells them at local craft fairs and home sales, returning proceeds to help the women and the craft cooperatives in which they work. After two years of successful operation, HopeCraft has raised over $50,000 through the sales of crafts.

Ms. Kennedy works in the US in an administrative capacity for Nyumbani, Kenya's first facility for HIV positive abandoned children. While visiting Nyambani and its community outreach program in the slums of Nairobi, the need for income generating projects quickly became apparent. Ms. Kennedy founded HopeCraft in May 2006 with the help of five Seacoast NH women. Using fair trade standards and micro-credit lending, HopeCraft is helping these poor women help themselves.

The Opening Worlds Series is being presented by Awareness UNlimited of Dover, NH. Awareness UNlimited is a non-profit organization providing consulting, organization, and production services to individuals and groups interested in developing programming which best addresses their awareness and diversity needs/desires. Additionally, Awareness UNlimited also sponsors events designed to help connect people and provide pro-active opportunities to address the many and wide-ranging diversity and tolerance issues that touch people on a daily basis. Awareness UNlimited believes that raising awareness about these issues and putting faces to them makes a difference and helps steer the world away from conflict and misunderstanding.

The Opening Worlds Series: HopeCraft presentation takes place on Tuesday, March 24, from 7:30-9:30 pm in the Third Floor Conference Room, The Picker Building, 2 Washington St., Dover, NH. Admission is free. For further information, please contact Deb Barry, Awareness UNlimited Executive Director at: deb@awareness-unlimited.com or 603-520-2933 .

Hope and Remembering Series in Hanover, NH

2009-02-11T17:44:16Z

Secret Courage: The Walter Suskind Story Launches Film Series in at Roth Center for Jewish Life.

Hanover, NH -February 16, 2009 - Hope and Remembering: Honoring and Healing, a four-part film and discussion series featuring Holocaust survivors, rescuers, and the history that affects us all, will be presented in Hanover at the Roth Center for Jewish Life beginning on February 26. The series is proudly sponsored by the Upper Valley Jewish Community, in their continuing efforts to support life-long learning and education, and Dartmouth Hillel. The public is invited to attend the events included in this thought-provoking series..

The series begins with the screening of Secret Courage - The Walter Suskind Story, accompanied by discussion with the film's director and producers, Tim and Karen Morse of M&M Films in Marlborough, MA. In addition to continued screenings and public exposure, the Morses'goals for 2009 center on educational outreach. Karen Morse and survivor Ries Vanderpol have created the first draft of a Teacher's Guide which will be made available to educators at the screening..

Walter Suskind was a German Jew living in Amsterdam who was forced by the Nazis to serve as the Jewish head of deportation at the Hollandsche Schouwburg (the Jewish Theater in Amsterdam), used as the main deportation site in Holland. Using his fluent German, his skills as an actor and businessman, and unfathomable courage and tenacity, he and an intrepid group of resistance workers orchestrated the escape of close to 1000 Dutch children who were marked for transport to the death camps. In Secret Courage, we hear the stories of five of the saved children in their own words. Eleven of the resistance workers interweave their own stories, painting a picture of an incredible rescue operation fraught with intrigue and danger, but also carrying the moral and ethical dilemma of deciding who could be saved and who could not. Although Walter took the secret of this mission to his death, these survivors tell his story and reflect on his ability to carry on when others gave up. They leave us to question our own moral code and what each of us might do when faced with such choiceless choices.

"I have seen hundreds of Holocaust films and this is one of the great ones. It triumphs because there is no triumph - the children and their honesty take over the film," remarks Larry Langer, Holocaust Historian. Joyce Speaker, cousin of Dutch Holocaust survivors comments, "What a riveting and emotional film. Thank you for sharing it with all of us. We need to be reminded of how precious life really is.".

Secret Courage producers Karen and Tim Morse have worked in the photo, video, and film industry for over thirty years. They have produced projects both large and small in the corporate and educational sectors, as well as a large commitment in recent years to the world of non-profits. Secret Courage is their first independent project, a true "labor of love" where they managed all aspects of the production, including fund raising. The film has screened at nine film festivals and has had exposure in seven countries including Israel.

Secret Courage is being presented on Thursday, February 26, at the Roth Center for Jewish Life, 5 Occom Ridge Rd., Hanover, beginning at 7 pm. Admission is free. For more information about this event or the film series, contact Carole Clarke at uvjc@valley.net or 603-646-0460.

Further information about the series sponsors is available at:

Hope & Remembering: Bonhoeffer

2009-02-04T20:04:32Z

Portsmouth, NH - January 7, 2009: The Hope and Remembering: Honoring and Healing film and discussion series continues on Thursday, January 15, at 7 pm at Temple Israel in Portsmouth, with the fourth of five films included in this series. Bonhoeffer, a documentary directed by Martin Doblmeier, is about the life, time, and eventual fate of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran minister who was a part of the Resistance during WWII Germany and ultimately became involved in plots to kill Adolf Hitler while struggling with the question of what it means to be a Christian and peacemaker. A discussion of the film and its issues following the screening will be facilitated by theologian and scholar, Dr. Martin Rumscheidt, of Dover. This series is proudly sponsored by Awareness UNlimited of Dover, Portsmouth Community Radio, and The Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College.

Hope & Remembering: Telling Their Stories

2009-02-04T04:25:51Z

Portsmouth, NH - November 5, 2008: Hope and Remembering: Honoring and Healing, a five-part film/discussion series, continues on Thursday, November 13, featuring Telling Their Stories - NH Holocaust Survivors Speak Out. The film, the third in this series, provides insight into the lives of four Holocaust survivors who eventually settled in New Hampshire, after many perilous journeys to escape the Nazis.

Hope & Remembering: Honoring and Healing

2009-02-04T03:41:16Z

Portsmouth, NH - October 10, 2008: The second of five films included in the Hope and Remembering: Honoring and Healing film and discussion series is a moving tribute to a man who helped saved Dutch children slated to die during The Holocaust. Secret Courage- The Walter Suskind Story will be shown on Thursday, October 23, at 7 pm at Temple Israel at 200 State Street in Portsmouth. The film's producers and director, Tim and Karen Morse of M&M Films, will participate in discussion and answer questions at this screening. The series is proudly sponsored by The Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College, Portsmouth Community Radio - "Connecting Community Campaign," and Awareness UNlimited - "Opening Minds...Opening Worlds." The public is invited to attend the events included in this thought-provoking series.