Peoples Selects Seeds of Peace as Youth Beneficiary for 2003 Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K

World-class race set for Saturday, August 2 in Cape Elizabeth

PORTLAND, Maine (January 7, 2003) - Peoples Heritage Bank announced today that Seeds of Peace, an organization that promotes tolerance and understanding among youth around the world, has been chosen as the beneficiary for this year's Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race.

Peoples will provide a cash donation of $30,000 from race proceeds. Additionally, Seeds of Peace will benefit from fundraising opportunities and publicity valued at more than $40,000.

Seeds of Peace brings together youth from troubled regions of the world to co-exist in an internationally-recognized conflict resolution program at a summer camp in western Maine as a way to dispel the hatred and misconceptions that divide them. Through the summer-long programs, participants develop empathy, respect, communication/negotiation skills, confidence, and hope - the building blocks for peaceful coexistence. Participants include Israelis and Arabs, Turks and Greeks, Indians and Pakistanis, and more.

For the past three years, Seeds of Peace has included sessions for local and immigrant teens from Portland - the organization's first effort to apply its methods of conflict resolution directly to an American contingent. The program is now open to teens all over Maine, including Lewiston, where an influx of Somali immigrants has sparked recent tensions.

There is no other such program available to and serving Maine youth.

"We've been aware of the work of Seeds of Peace for a long while, and can think of no better time to bring their mission to Maine's forefront through the Peoples Beach to Beacon," said Michael W. McNamara, president and CEO of Peoples Heritage Bank, the race's major corporate sponsor. "Maine is becoming a much more diverse state and it's vitally important to find a way to increase understanding, especially among our young people, who represent the state's future."

"Like the Peoples Beach to Beacon race, people from all over the world participate in our program," said Timothy Wilson, Seeds of Peace International Camp Director. "We appreciate the bank's generosity and are honored to be the youth beneficiary for this great international event. It is organizations like Peoples that make Seeds of Peace possible."

The date for the 2003 Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race, which attracts elite runners worldwide as well as top road racers locally and across New England, has been set for Saturday, Aug. 2 along the picturesque shores of Maine's rocky coast in Cape Elizabeth.

The field size, increased last year to commemorate the fifth anniversary, will remain at 5,000 this year for the popular race, which is expected to fill up by early summer. Registration will begin in mid-March.

Now in its sixth year, the Peoples Beach to Beacon has grown to become a top international road race and much more. Runners from nine countries and 43 states participated in 2002. Each year, too, families in Cape Elizabeth open their homes to elite athletes from such countries as Kenya, Ethiopia, Japan, Russia and South Africa. The cultural exchange is another special aspect of the event.

That effort to promote understanding will be further enhanced this year by the selection of Seeds of Peace as the youth beneficiary, according to Joan Benoit Samuelson, Maine's most recognizable athlete who founded the race.

"Seeds of Peace's formula for addressing ethnic and racial tensions is known the world over, and we look forward to assisting the organization with such a worthwhile and timely youth program," said Samuelson, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist and two-time Boston Marathon champion.

Samuelson serves as a spokesperson for the bank during the year to promote the race and the bank's "Peoples Promise" program, which benefits Maine youth with scholarships, sponsorship programs and charitable gifts. Last year's race beneficiary was Opportunity Farm, a long-term, family-style, residential facility in New Gloucester for at-risk Maine youth.

Seeds of Peace, founded in 1993 by award-winning author and journalist John Wallach, is recognized as the leading international conflict resolution program for youth. Each summer, hundreds of teens identified as their nation's best and brightest spend a month at Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine, living side-by-side with people they have been led to hate.

The Maine Project is a pilot program designed to address ethnic and racial tensions between diverse communities in the U.S. Immigrant and refugee populations continue to swell in Portland, Lewiston, and in other Maine cities, and schools and neighborhoods now more closely mirror the profound diversity so valued in America. Unfortunately, as diversity has increased, so too have hate crimes and discrimination - particularly among youth. The Maine Project is a proactive measure to increase understanding, tolerance, and unity throughout the state. Past participants in the Maine program include teens from Cambodia, Rwanda, Somalia, Vietnam, Sudan and Uganda who have recently settled in Maine, as well as youth from European-American families whose Maine roots date back several generations.

For additional information, visit the Seeds of Peace web site at www.seedsofpeace.org.

For more information on the race, visit www.beach2beacon.org or the bank's web site at www.peoplesheritage.com.

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A contingent of Seeds of Peace students from Portland and Lewiston, including immigrants from eight different countries, sing following a news conference announcing that Peoples Heritage Bank selected Seeds of Peace as the youth beneficiary for the Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race. Standing among the students are (from left) Timothy Wilson, Seeds of Peace International Camp Director, Joan Benoit Samuelson, a Maine running legend and founder of the Peoples Beach to Beacon, and Michael W. McNamara, President and CEO of Peoples Heritage Bank. (contributed photo)