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Gathering for peace The second annual Mother's Day Gathering for Peace is 10 a.m. Saturday at Ferguson Park in Snohomish. The free event will feature speakers, music including children's entertainer Tim Noah, and a celebration of Julia Ward Howe's 1870 "Mother's Day Proclamation." Ferguson Park is at 1313 Ferguson Park Road. Information on Results, an organization fighting global poverty: www.results.org Information on Etta Projects: www.ettaprojects.org

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Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com

Mothers will give peace reading in Snohomish on Saturday

By Julie Muhlstein, Herald Columnist

Mother's Day isn't about sleeping late, being pampered or opening pretty gifts, not to Teresa Rugg. She's seen parts of the world where people live on a dollar a day.

The Snohomish mom wants to spread the spirit of Mother's Day first put forth by Julia Ward Howe in 1870. Howe raised six children in Boston. Like Rugg, she looked to the needs of a wider world. Among her causes were the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. A poet, Howe penned the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

After the Civil War, Howe turned to pacifism. She wrote the "Mother's Day Proclamation," which says nothing of flowers or gifts. Its message is peace. Howe wrote, in part:

"Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means

Whereby the great human family can live in peace."

On Saturday, Howe's proclamation will be read by women of several generations. Each one will take a turn. They'll say their lines while standing on an old tree stump at Ferguson Park in Snohomish.

The reading is part of the Mother's Day Gathering for Peace, a free event aimed at raising awareness of global poverty and of the needs of children around the world. Festivities begin at 10 a.m. and include speakers, plus music performed by Tim Noah, Real Folk, Bryan Stratton, Peter Ali and Beth Whitney. There will be art activities for kids and a peace march around the park on the southwest edge of Blackmans Lake.

This is the second year for the gathering, which drew more than 100 people last Mother's Day weekend.

Rugg, 41, is like every mother of school-age kids -- busy. She keeps step with Casey, her 6-year-old son, and her daughter Tessa, 8. Following Saturday's gathering, she'll have time enough for lunch before her son's baseball game.

Her settled life in Snohomish hasn't kept Rugg from remembering people she encountered while in the Peace Corps in the 1990s. She and her husband, Will, served in Cameroon. With a background in public health, she taught biology and health in the west-central African country.

"One goal in the Peace Corps is to come back and share the experience with others," Rugg said.

Rugg not only became a mother after her Peace Corps years, she experienced life-altering loss. A dear friend, Claudia Amaya-Lacson, died of tuberculosis in 2004. Rugg has worked with her friend's husband, Romel Lacson, in honoring Claudia through the TB Photovoice Project, which uses photographs to tell stories of sufferers.

In November, Rugg traveled to South Africa for an international TB conference. She's also involved with the nonprofit organization Results, which works to ease poverty and boost educational opportunities in developing countries. The group lobbies in Congress on issues involving hunger and disease.

With chapters in Snohomish County and around the country, Results pushes for basic education for children around the world.

"There are little things we can do so that children have a future," Rugg said. "Looking at their own lives, many women are ready to take action. They're looking for inspiration -- how am I going to make a difference?"

On Saturday, they may find inspiration in Pennye Nixon West, a speaker at the Snohomish gathering. Transcending personal pain, the Port Orchard woman established an organization that helps poor Bolivian children.

Her 16-year-old daughter, Etta, was killed in a bus accident six years ago while in Bolivia as an exchange student.

The teen's family has worked through the nonprofit Etta Projects to support a center in Bolivia that helps feed, educate and bring health care to children there.

"It's not just a mother honoring her daughter," Rugg said of Nixon West. "Out of this tragedy came amazing hope. It shows the power we all have inside us."

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.