Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace (BACP) held our monthly meeting on Monday, July 11, 2022 at 7 p.m.   The meeting took place in Gregory Park.  Judi Schiller, Richard Schiller, and Doug Olson joined the BACP meeting.   

Meeting participants discussed BACP hosting a table at the Brainerd Pride Picnic on Saturday, June 18.   The tabling went very well.  BACP members Donna Bowen, Isaiah Oleson, Doug Olson, and Judi and Richard Schiller volunteered at the BACP table.  Brainerd Pride Picnic attendees who visited the BACP tabled supported BACP's peace activism.   Local candidates Sally Boos (running for State House) and Steve Samuelson (running for State Senate) visited the booth, as did former State House candidate Dale Menk, to talk with booth volunteers and express their support for BACP's peace activism.

The BACP table received $34 in donations.   Four people signed up to be on the BACP contact list.   Picnic attendees who visited the BACP table picked up all of the copies of The War Resisters League 2022 military spending pie chart leaflet and a 2012 essay on the culture of violence in the United States.


The Brainerd Fourth of July parade, held on Monday, July 4, went very well.   Seven people joined the Brainerd Democracy Alliance parade unit:  Larry Fisk, Gayle Nielsen, Larry and Gayle's friend Mary Beth Revak from Charlottesville, Virginia, Judi and Richard Schiller, Pat Scott, and Doug Olson.   The parade unit was made up predominately of BACP and Brainerd Lakers United for the Environment (BLUE) members with Gayle and Larry Brainerd Lakes Area Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members and Doug a Lakes Area Move to Amend (LAMTA) member.

The Brainerd Democracy Alliance parade unit received an overwhelmingly positive response from parade watchers.   Almost no one made a negative comment or gesture.   Many parade watchers cheered, clapped, waved, and gave peace signs in support of the parade unit.  A few parade watchers joined in the pro-peace chanting with the unit.  There were more people watching the parade this year than in the last several years of the Brainerd Fourth of July parade.

Everyone in the parade unit had a great time.   The shorter parade route for this year's Brainerd Fourth of July parade made walking in the parade easier.   Hopefully, this shorter route will be retained for future Brainerd Fourth of July parades.


BACP will host our booth at the Crow Wing County Fair from Tuesday, August 2 through Saturday, August 6.   The BACP booth will be open every day of the Fair from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.   The Crow Wing County Fair is located at 2000 SE 13th Street, Brainerd.   The BACP booth is located in Industrial Building #1.  

Richard and Judi will set up the booth on Monday, August 1.   They will use the BACP banner and borrow the "One Earth, One Humanity" banner from Anne and Steve Nelson-Fisher, friends of BACP member Steve Long.   There will be peace flags surrounding the booth.
Richard and Judi will dismantle the booth the week after the Fair ends.   Richard and Judi setting up and dismantling the BACP Crow Wing County Fair booth is greatly appreciated.

Doug will try to find Free Julian Assange literature for use at the BACP booth.  Assange is facing extradition from the United Kingdom on Espionage Act charges in the United States for publishing documents revealing U.S. war crimes and corruption on Wikileaks.   BACP member Elaine Kain made Free Julian Assange buttons for the BACP Crow Wing County Fair booth.

Richard is posting regularly updated BACP Crow Wing County Fair booth schedules on the BACP listserv so booth volunteers know which shifts are available.  

Please contact Richard at schiller@blackcoat.info if you are interested in volunteering at the BACP Crow Wing County Fair booth.
Booth shifts are two hours (i.e. 2 to 4 p.m.).   The work of every BACP booth volunteer is greatly appreciated.


The next BACP meeting will be held in Gregory Park on Monday, August 1 at 7 p.m., weather permitting.   Gregory Park is located at 511 North Fifth Street, Brainerd.   If bad weather prevents an outdoor meeting, the BACP meeting will be held in the Brainerd United Church of Christ (UCC) upstairs library.    The Brainerd UCC is located at 415 Juniper Street, Brainerd, near Gregory Park.  

The BACP meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.   

BACP Meeting Notes Submitted by Doug Olson