1) The First Shift

Because of the length of the event, there were three shifts of peace teams planned for Pride Day. Here, the folks are gathering for orientation - - Once the rain began, the orientation was moved indoors.

2) Orientation

Before any Team is dispersed, there is always an orientation where you meet your fellow Team members, develop affinity teams (subsets that can act autonomously), and role-play any possible scenarios that may be likely to occur during the day.

3) Abby Makes a Point

MPT's Abby Schlaff helped coordinate this year's Pride Domestic Peace Team. Everyone serving on this team has been through at least 8 hours of nonviolence training, although many members have also served on other domestic and/or international teams with MPT.

4) Taking Notes

One of the things that gets covered in our orientation are just plain logistics: Did folks remember to bring water to drink (the day is often long and hot)? Sunscreen? Their cell phone? One way for us to maintain communication between affinity teams is by exchanging cell phone numbers at orientation, and setting the phones to vibrate (so if you don't hear it ring, you can "feel" it ring). If a situation looks like it may escalate, team members can then call each other for back-up.

5) Role-plays

After donning the familiar yellow vests that identify Peace Team members, we discuss what potential scenarios for violence the day may hold, and how to best handle them in a compassionate, nonviolent way.

6) Sharing Experiences

Often, people who have served on previous teams will relay incidents that they had encountered, and what worked/what didn't. We also brainstorm other ideas and options, so if Plan A doesn't work, we can go to Plan B...or C...or D if need be.

7) Affinity Teams Also Discuss Their Roles

With the collective knowledge of everyone present, Affinity Teams can talk about the specifics that they will be on the look-out for. For example, Paul and Lisa (in the foreground) discuss what they, as members of the Bike Patrol, may need to be watching out for.

8) The Team Deploys

The Bike Patrol heads out to review the path that the parade will be taking, and to see if there are any potential concerns the rest of the Team should be made aware of.

9) Welcome to the Pride Festival!

At least two Peace Team members will stay stationed at the gate to the festival grounds at all times, to make sure people can safely enter and exit.

10) The Crowd Begins to Line Up

Long before the festival grounds's gates were scheduled to open, folks began to line up - - An indication of the happy anticipation attendees have for the day's events.

11) First Alert

Paul - on bike patrol - points out a situation that may increase the likelyhood of violence. Immediately, an affinity team moves toward the area "just in case".

12) Protestors

Conservative Christians protest both the event and the people in attendance. Often, they are a lightening-rod for violence (based on the things they yell out at the participants). Therefore, an affinity team ends up being assigned to them for as long as there is this potential for violence. In this case, they stayed all day.

13) Theresa and Fred

Two of the three-member affinity team assigned to monitor the situation around the protestors. At the end of the day, the team members assigned this duty talked about how difficult it is to stay centered when you're exposed to hours of insults and denegrations. However, despite the taunting done by the protestors, all physical violence was prevented.

14) Pride Band Takes the Lead

When ugly slurs were being called out by protestors, the Pride Band gracefully and nonviolently helped improve the mood by playing "Jesus Loves Me" and other songs with more positive messages.

15) The Parade Begins

Two Peace Team members hang back to walk with those near the end of the parade; three monitor the protestors (who are moving with the parade), two stay at the festival gates (for those not joining the parade) and the bike patrol moves back & forth from the beginning to the end of the line to make sure everyone is safe from violence.

16) The Great Lakes Pride Band

A wonderful asset to the day, the music helped encourage the celebration of every single person; each one of us having worth and value.

17) Patrolling

Peace Team members need to be constantly monitoring the environment, the crowd, specific individuals, and the collective mood - - all in the attempt to keep Pride day nonviolent.

18) Protestors Moved Along the Parade Route

And MPT Peace Team members moved along with them. To the crowd's great credit, most attendees ignored them or seemed to understand that their narrow-mindedness was nothing if not sad.

19) All of Michigan Was Represented

People came from all over to celebrate together. The diversity was wonderful: Old, young, Caucasian, Hispanic, African American, students, retirees, able-bodied and people with challenges, gay, straight, bisexual, and transgendered. Aside from the protestors, there was a real spirit of inclusiveness.

20) Stopping Point

According to the police officers present, the protestors had to stay on the east side of Capital Avenue as they did not have a permit to be on the State Capital grounds. The assigned affinity Team was able to leave them for awhile and instead spend time with some young children who were hurt and confused by the protestors targeting their families.

21) Second Shift

At approximately 1 p.m., the folks taking the Peace Team's second shift (which took over at 2 pm) arrived. The one hour overlap with the first shift allows for debriefing of the teams, and the opportunity to share possible "flash point" areas.

22) Debriefing

During the overlap time, the next shift completes their own orientation, identifies affinity teams, and reviews the information that the first shift of Peace Team members is able to pass along to them.

23) Liz and Sheri

Liz Walters (left) helped coordinate, recruit volunteers to serve on the Pride Day Peace Team, and worked two of the shifts herself. Sheri Wander (right) is chair of MPT's Nonviolence Training Committee, and came from an International Teams training to serve on the second shift.

24) Nik and Beth

Nicole Rohrkemper (left) coordinates MPT's International Teams; Beth (right) was an MPT intern who later served on our community-based Team in the West Bank; she plans to return to serve again. Both Nik and Beth worked the second shift of the Pride Day peace team.

25) Back to the Festival Grounds

After the gathering at the Capital, Pride Day attendees returned to Adado Riverfront Park to continue the celebration. At the end of the day, MPT was happy to report that we had stymied all attempts at physical violence, and most people enjoyed a peaceful day despite some protestors' attempts at steering the event into a different direction.