Tomorrow’s Present receives

the Eleanor Backus Peace Award

On the first of May, 2010, at the House of Peace, during their Teen Leader graduate luncheon, the Religious Society of Friends gave the Eleanor Backus Peace Award to Tomorrow’s Present, for the leadership shown in fostering peace activities.

Ian Harris presented the award to Dr. Lisa Calderone-Stewart and Tomorrow’s Present, in honor of the peacemaking activities connected to both these programs:

• Pebbles of Peace outweighing Boulders of Violence
• Interfaith Youth Café

The award is given in honor of Eleanor Backus (1907-1999), a longtime member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Eleanor was a peace educator and social activist all her life. In the 1950’s, Eleanor participated in vigils to protest the manufacture and use of chemical and biological weapons.  In the 1960’s, she marched in opposition to the Vietnam war. Eleanor was a founding member of the local chapter of UNICEF as well as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She held a degree in international relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Eleanor was also an active member of the World Federalist Association, an organization founded in 1947 to foster the establishment of law on an international level.  She participated in the activities of the Greater Milwaukee United Nations Association and hosted meetings of the group well into her 80th year. The mother of six children, Eleanor believed it would be “wrong to bring children into the world and do nothing about the world they are inheriting. In 1994, the first award was presented by Eleanor herself to students at North Division High School.