Promoter of peace honored with 5K trot
by Stacey Shackford, published June 21, 2010 in the Ithaca Journal
Almost as much as he loved peace and poetry, Peter De Mott was fond of pounding the pavement.
More than a hundred people gathered at Cornell Plantations on Sunday to honor the memory of the well-known Ithaca activist by participating in the non-competitive 5K Peter De Mott Peace Trot.
Family, friends and fellow activists came from far and wide-- California, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan and Nebraska-- to spend Father's Day honoring a man who some described as not only a father of four girls, but to everyone else as well, through his social activism and environmental stewardship.
"He had a great appreciation for his role as a dad, and his role in the world," said long-time friend Bill Hartman, who came from New Jersey to attend.
De Mott's wife, Ellen Grady, opened the event by reciting one of Peter's favorite poems, which paid tribute to God and the Earth and included the line, "we who have died are alive again today."
One of his mottos was "a day without sweat is a day to regret," and his fellow running enthusiasts did his justice in that regard by plowing through the heat and humidity to complete the gentle course that wound through the arboretum, reflecting another of his loves. Peter's fall from high atop a tree led to his death in February 2009.
Those who completed the course with distinction were awarded carpenter's hammers meant to be used to disarm any weapon of war or to make something constructive. They were engraved with the phrase "Swards into Plowshares" and adorned with origami peace cranes.
Peter was a popular protester who was arrested more than a dozen times, most notably as one of the "St. Patrick's Day Four," a group that on March 17, 2003 poured their own blood around a military recruiting center in Lansing to protest the then-imminent invasion of Iraq.
The 62-year-old Vietnam vet was also a founding member of the Ithaca Catholic Worker group, part of a larger movement founded in 1933 by Dorothy Day that focuses on justice and charity through communal farming activities, food-sharing and faith-based, non-violent activism.
Money raised from the event will be used to support the group's new headquarters and meeting center, which was named after Peter when it opened on Plain Street in December.
Almost as much as he loved peace and poetry, Peter De Mott was fond of pounding the pavement.
More than a hundred people gathered at Cornell Plantations on Sunday to honor the memory of the well-known Ithaca activist by participating in the non-competitive 5K Peter De Mott Peace Trot.
Family, friends and fellow activists came from far and wide-- California, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan and Nebraska-- to spend Father's Day honoring a man who some described as not only a father of four girls, but to everyone else as well, through his social activism and environmental stewardship.
"He had a great appreciation for his role as a dad, and his role in the world," said long-time friend Bill Hartman, who came from New Jersey to attend.
De Mott's wife, Ellen Grady, opened the event by reciting one of Peter's favorite poems, which paid tribute to God and the Earth and included the line, "we who have died are alive again today."
One of his mottos was "a day without sweat is a day to regret," and his fellow running enthusiasts did his justice in that regard by plowing through the heat and humidity to complete the gentle course that wound through the arboretum, reflecting another of his loves. Peter's fall from high atop a tree led to his death in February 2009.
Those who completed the course with distinction were awarded carpenter's hammers meant to be used to disarm any weapon of war or to make something constructive. They were engraved with the phrase "Swards into Plowshares" and adorned with origami peace cranes.
Peter was a popular protester who was arrested more than a dozen times, most notably as one of the "St. Patrick's Day Four," a group that on March 17, 2003 poured their own blood around a military recruiting center in Lansing to protest the then-imminent invasion of Iraq.
The 62-year-old Vietnam vet was also a founding member of the Ithaca Catholic Worker group, part of a larger movement founded in 1933 by Dorothy Day that focuses on justice and charity through communal farming activities, food-sharing and faith-based, non-violent activism.
Money raised from the event will be used to support the group's new headquarters and meeting center, which was named after Peter when it opened on Plain Street in December.
