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Thank You For Another Fabulous Event!
Once again, you came and gave in the spirit of our shared commitment to children and their Right to Play. Thank you!
The evening was emceed by Sonia Rosen, with Nadim, her one-year-old son, helping out quite a bit. Abeer Karzoun and Betsey Piette opened the event with introductory remarks in Arabic and English, followed by a delicious dinner catered by Oaklane Diner.
Hanan Urick gave a wonderful presentation about her trip to Palestine and showed images of the sites we are working on now.
 Two awards were given this year for outstanding contributions to PfP’s mission of raising awareness of the plight of Palestinian children and to upholding their Right to Play. Jacqueline Berry presented the first to Rochelle Davis and Nicolas Griffin, who accepted the award on behalf of Midsummer Night’s Dream Team, a group of friends who organized several events to raise awareness and funds to support a playground in Budrus. Thank you!
Susan Abulhawa presented the second award in absentia to British author of six novels, William Sutcliffe, whose latest book, The Wall, has been described as “the best novel on Palestine written by a non-Palestinian”. Abulhawa loved it and said she couldn’t put it down once she started reading. The Wall is due to be released in the US on June 4th, but is already out in the UK. Sutcliffe has and will continue to donate 15% of all royalties on his book to PfP. He accepted his award remotely from London via video. Thank you, William!
Everyone agreed that our feature entertainment – Amer Zahr, comedian and writer extraordinaire – was fabulous! Although Amer gets hefty performance fees wherever he goes, he generously refused even a small honoraria from PfP. To top it off, he wouldn’t allow us to pay for his transportation from Detroit to Philadelphia. We are immensely grateful to Amer and hope you will check out his blog: The Civil Arab
Thank you to all of our guests, supporters, awardees, volunteers, and donors.
With love from all of us at PfP!
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