For most participants, the game of Ultimate Frisbee is a playful diversion, and one of the farthest things one can imagine from the Middle East and its conflicts.
For Dani Glass, it’s been a life-changing experience and a means of potential peacemaking.
Glass, a junior at Lawrence University, has become involved in Ultimate Peace, a non-profit initiative launched by a former teammate of her uncle’s.
Conducted in Israel, the camp uses Ultimate Frisbee as an instrument to help teenagers in the region build relationships that might help lead to a more peaceful Middle East.
In the summer of 2010, Glass traveled to Israel with her mother, three cousins, her uncle and aunt to participate in the first week-long Ultimate Peace camp near Haifa. It attracted more than 120 Arab-Israeli, Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian teenagers.
A unique aspect of Ultimate Frisbee is that it is played without official referees. Known as “the spirit of the game” — an elevated level of sportsmanship — it is instead governed by the 14 players on the field, making it an ideal vehicle for bonding disparate groups.
“Spirit encompasses five values: mutual respect, integrity, fun, non-violence and friendship,” said Glass. “Through spirit we provide kids the opportunity to get to know each other and form friendships that have proven to be important, meaningful and lasting for them.”
‘No politics’ rule
Operating on a “no politics” rule, the camps strive to get each group to learn more about the other’s culture through conversation, but not debate public policy or geography.
“By eating together, practicing in the hot sun, hanging out at the pool, doing some non-Frisbee things, the kids really get to know each other,” said Glass, who will serve next year as co-president of Lawrence’s chapter of Hillel. “That’s an incredible thing to see.
“They all come from places with so much conflict and prejudice and then they get to camp, they get to know each other and a lot of that starts to melt away.”
Five years in, Ultimate Peace is indeed serving as a bridge. Glass tells stories of Jewish girls who want to visit their Arab friends’ houses to experience Ramadan and Arab girls who want to see what Jewish holidays are like.
“We have two girls, an Arab-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli, talking about how they’re going to stand up at each other’s weddings,” said Glass, one of about 30 American coaches who work the camps each summer. “To see that transformation happen and to be part of it is just the most gratifying thing I could ever imagine.”
“I don’t know how to describe the impact it has had on my life,” said Glass, who has returned to Ultimate Peace each summer since that first trip four years ago and was scheduled do so again June 20-29. “It has changed my life more than I could have ever imagined.
“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the question, ‘What do you know for sure?’ There are not very many things I can say ‘I know that 100 percent to be true,’ but I do know for sure that the most important things in my life are showing simple kindness, showing gratitude and choosing to matter.
“Ultimate Peace has helped me to get there, to understand the role that those things can play in my life and can play in other peoples’ lives if I enact them, if I embody them. It’s given me the chance to step out of the constraints I’ve lived under. Every year with Ultimate Peace, I’ve stepped out of those constraints even more.”
It’s hardly a surprise that Glass, a junior and English major, would gravitate to this sport. Three members of her family have played it professionally, including her father, Bruce Glass. Her uncle and aunt, Mike and Nancy Glass, were recent inductees into the Ultimate Hall of Fame in Texas.
Glass is a graduate of Deerfield High School in suburban Chicago. A long-time soccer player, Glass dove headlong into Ultimate Frisbee after learning Illinois would be sending a representative team to a major youth tournament for the first time.
“I picked it up pretty easily, having played soccer for so many years,” said Glass, the starting goalie on Lawrence’s women’s soccer team and a cutter on the college’s Ultimate Frisbee team. “Just knowing how to play a field sport was very helpful. Plus being surrounded by people who were very good and knew what they were doing helped me to learn very quickly.”
While her college graduation is a year away, Glass sees Ultimate Peace playing a role in her career direction.
“What I’ve seen in the kids who speak more than their native language is that language is a very empowering thing,” she said. “I’ve wanted to be a high school English or literature teacher for as long as I can remember.
“But in the past couple years, I’ve realized that what I really want to do is teach English abroad. I’ve looked into a few programs, including some in the Middle East. It’s always been a life goal to learn conversational Hebrew. It’d be nice to pick up some Arabic, too.
“If I could teach there and work there, I could conduct practices and clinics and see these kids all year because just once every year isn’t enough.”
Rick Peterson is manager of media relations at Lawrence University.
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