The coordinator of next month’s Walk to End Genocide is probably younger than most of its participants.
At 14, Gabe Ferrick of Santa Rosa has already organized one advocacy walk for Darfur, which last year raised $10,000 for the war-torn region in Africa. This year’s Walk to End Genocide on April 18 in Santa Rosa will be his second.
“I’ve met some exceptional youth, but I don’t remember a child who’s taken on a social justice issue as seriously and as continuously as Gabe has,” said Rabbi George Gittleman of Santa Rosa’s Congregation Shomrei Torah, where Ferrick’s family has been longtime members.
Ferrick is organizing the Walk to End Genocide with support from Shomrei Torah’s social justice committee. All money raised will go to Jewish World Watch, a Los Angeles–based human rights organization, for its work in Darfur and the Congo.
In Darfur, more than 400,000 people have been killed since 2003 in a systematic campaign by the Sudanese government to clear the region of its non-Arab tribes. In the Congo, more than 5.4 million civilians have been killed by hunger, disease and war-related violence, ongoing since 1996.
The Walk to End Genocide will begin at 11 a.m. at Congregation Shomrei Torah, 2600 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa. The three-mile walk, all on city streets, will end at the synagogue.
The 40 walkers who were registered as of March 22 have raised a total of $5,482. Each walker is encouraged to raise at least $180, though it’s not required.
“Gabe is exactly what you want in an activist — he cares deeply and he’s capable of moving others to do something about the issues,” Abby Leibman said by phone from Southern California. She is a Jewish World Watch consultant who has worked with Ferrick on both of his coordinating efforts.
Ferrick, a freshman at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, said he became interested in Darfur after he learned about the violence in western Sudan in a fifth-grade humanities class. That same year, Ferrick read “Number the Stars,” Lois Lowry’s novel about a 10-year-old Danish girl whose family hides the girl’s Jewish best friend during the Holocaust.
“That book connected me to my Jewish life and the Holocaust,” Ferrick said. “And learning about the genocide in Darfur really stuck with me.”
Two years later, Ferrick was still thinking about Darfur and the Holocaust. He wanted to do something to help the former that would be connected to the latter.
Upon his rabbi’s suggestion, Ferrick got in touch with Jewish World Watch. He ended up raising $16,000 for the nonprofit’s backpack project, which provides Sudanese children with backpacks filled with shoes, books, school supplies and soap.
“It became less about the requirements of a bar mitzvah project and more a reflection of his truly embracing the responsibility of what it means to be an adult in the Jewish community,” Gittleman said.
Ferrick ramped up his efforts last year with the Walk for Darfur. Over a period of two months, Ferrick (with help from his mom, Nancy Ferrick) secured city permits, recruited volunteers and raised enough money to put on the walk.
Shomrei Torah has pledged $250 to offset the cost of the 2010 walk, but when Jewish World Watch offered Ferrick $500, he turned it down.
“I would rather find a way to get the money myself and have Jewish World Watch keep the money so it can go directly to Darfur and the Congo,” he said.
Ferrick hopes to register 150 walkers and raise more than the $10,000 that last year’s 100 walkers raised. People of all ages are encouraged to register for the family-friendly event.
“I may live half a world away from these atrocities, but that is one reason why I am more determined than ever to increase awareness and raise funds to help end the genocide in Darfur and the conflict in the Congo,” Ferrick wrote in a fundraising appeal to friends and family. “Of course, I can’t do it alone.”
Walk to End Genocide begins 8 a.m. April 18 at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa. $18 to register. Register: www.walktoendgenocide.org. Donations: Gabe Ferrick, (707) 538-3687.