PLAY FRISBEE™ AS A CAREER (12/7/14)

Whoever said “…grow-up and get a job,” never met Ben Spears. 

A recent Masters Graduate of Georgia State University, Ben Spears took a job in Israel to teach the sport of Ultimate Frisbee™.  Call it Peace Frisbee™. 

Yeah, people here don’t even know that U.F. is kind of like keep-away disc football, but with no concussions or need for neck guards.  Why would Ben Spears cross oceans to teach it?

“I’m trying to have a life and share families in two places.  I love and care for the people of Atlanta, and I also love my friends in the Middle East, and I want to share them both.”

Founded in 2008, Ultimate Peace is an organization that creates innovative, educational, peace-building programs for youth that aimed to build bridges of friendship, trust, and leadership throughout the sport.  Leaders of that organization invited Spears to join their staff after college

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“We have to take advantage of things that fall into our path,” said Spears “… find a place that makes your heart come alive, and it fits with whatever you are involved-in.”

The Ultimate Peace (UP) web site http://www.ultimatepeace.org is filled with photos of successful Sports Camps which have brought together young minds in the Middle East.  Most of the children have grown-up in conflict and trauma.  The mission of Ultimate Peace has been a welcomed effort to plant seeds of peace.

“Ultimate Peace provides a space for kids and communities to work towards their own resolutions,” said Spears.   

Thanks to mentors like Ben, ‘High Fives’ are being exchanged between Jewish, Arab, and Palestinian youth; many for the very first time.

“I’m not going to the Middle East as a political scientist or Solver of Conflict, I’m going over there as a Frisbee™ Expert.” said Spears.

Spears says he had not planned on moving to the Israel to work. 

During last summer’s exchange between Israel and Palestinians, the programs were cancelled.  Ben returned home to Georgia and was depressed about the elements of the conflict and how it would affect the children he was mentoring.

“I had a semester left in graduate school, “explained Spears.  “When I returned and heard that the conflict had re-ignited I got kind of depressed because I care very deeply about the kids and their families, very real people who were in the vicinity of danger.”

 

Thankfully, the camps have returned, and Ben has left Atlanta to teach Frisbee™ and plant soul seeds for a living in Israel.  

---Ray Macon