New Brunswick Resident, Virginia Ahearn to Recieve Award At NJPA's 59th Annual Dinner

Virginia Ahearn, New Brunswick Resident, to Receive the New Jersey Peace Action Founder’s Award for Board Leadership as New Jersey Peace Action Celebrates 59 years of “organizing for peace and a nuclear-free future” at its annual awards dinner – featuring kevin martin, national director of peace action and shigeko sasamori, hiroshima survivor – April 24, 2016

for more information contact: Madelyn Hoffman, Executive Director, New Jersey Peace Action (973)259-1126 or (973)876-1023

The Bloomfield-based New Jersey Peace Action (NJPA) is holding its 59th Annual Dinner on Sunday, April 24, 2016 at the Hasbrouck Heights Hilton, 650 Terrace Avenue, Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.

This year’s program is: “Organizing for Peace and a Nuclear – Free Future”. Kevin Martin, Executive Director of the Peace Action national office and long-time activist for peace and justice will speak about what Peace Action is doing and has done over its 59-year history to organize for a peaceful and nuclear-free world. Shigeko Sasamori, a Hibakusha, Hiroshima Maiden and the adopted daughter of one of SANE’s founders (now Peace Action) Norman Cousins will speak about her experiences and passionate desire for peace. NJPA will also honor Peace and Planet and name Litsa Binder NJPA “Person of the Year.” Virginia Ahearn will be honored with the New Jersey Peace Action Founders’ Award for Board Leadership.

Virginia Ahearn has played a key role in fundraising for NJ Peace Action (NJPA) throughout her 25 year history with the organization. Her early years were spent as a staff member of NJPA, first serving as Office Administrator from 1991‒1995. From 1997‒2000, she next served as Executive Director, and in 2000 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from National Peace Action.

Virginia left NJPA in the fall of 2000 to attend midwifery school in Texas and returned two years later. Upon her return to New Jersey, she worked as a phone banker for NJPA until 2009, when she joined the Board of NJ Peace Action, and she has served on the Board to date, serving as co-chair of the Fundraising Committee with Peggy Monges. In 2007, Virginia was listed on the Top 100 Women Activists for Peace developed by national Peace Action.

One of the featured speakers at the Annual Dinner, Shigeko Sasamori, was thirteen at the time of the bombing of Hiroshima and was less than a mile away from where the nuclear bomb exploded. Norman Cousins and the Quakers raised money to bring Shigeko and 24 other Hiroshima Maidens to the U.S. for reconstructive surgery in 1955. Sasamori has dedicated her life to campaigning for peace and “against all nuclear things.”

“As long as I live, I will speak all over the world to many people because I feel we went through such a horrible life, we should not have anybody go through experiences like we did,” said Shigeko Sasamori. “I get to keep going because this is my mission, and it is very important. It makes me very happy to see all of these young people who want to do something and stop the nonsense … war is nothing good. Everybody has a responsibility to keep this Earth beautiful.”

Since 1957, NJPA has worked for a world in which all are free from violence and war. NJPA and its parent organization Peace Action, based in Silver Spring, Maryland, continue to raise awareness that the end of the Cold War did not terminate nuclear threats to our country and the world. It strives for the global abolition of nuclear weapons as a most important part of removing those threats. Most recently, NJPA was part of a successful effort to uphold the Iran deal, a victory for diplomacy and negotiations.

Those interested in making reservations for this event, please visit www.njpeaceaction.org or call (973)259-1126.