Find a Torch Event
All events on Sunday, October 7, unless otherwise noted.Click on your city
Amherst | Andover | Attleboro | Boston | Boston - Northeastern | Braintree | Cambridge
Cambridge - Harvard University | Cape Cod
| Newton | Somerville - Tufts
Waltham - Brandeis University | Winchester | Westboro | Add your City
Amherst
| Description: | There will be over a dozen speakers and a large rally. |
| Location: | Amherst Town Common |
| Time: | 1pm - 4pm |
| Contact: | Steph Aines massachusetts@standnow.org |
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Andover
| Description: | Participants will meet at the Andover train station to join together to represent Phillips Academy and Andover at the ceremonial torch lighting in Boston. |
| Location: | Andover train station |
| Time: | 1:15pm |
| Contact: | Daniel Glassbergs dglassberg@andover.edu |
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Attleboro - Bishop Feehan High School
| Description: | This event begins with a 'coffee house' style venue, where students at the high school can play acoustic songs, usually w/ a social justice theme. Afterwards, there will be a candlelight/torch vigil by a statue of the Virgin. |
| Location: | Bishop Feehan High School |
| Time: | Date and Time TBD |
| Contact: | Jayson Joyce JJoyce@standnow.org |
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Boston
| Description: | Bring your family and friends to participate in the Boston Torch Relay for Darfur, taking place along the freedom trail. The Boston relay will focus on community collaboration, passing the torch from generation to generation, to show our support for the people of Darfur and demonstrate our commitment to ending the Genocide as a whole. The Boston Torch Relay team will then join with other communities at the culminating ceremony at Government Center on City Hall Plaza. |
| Location: | Paul Revere Mall, behind the Old North Church, along the Freedom Trail, in the North End |
| Time: | 2:00 pm |
| Contact: | Jessica Kraft jckraft@hotmail.com Please put "Boston torch relay" in the subject line of your e-mail. |
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Boston - Northeastern
| Description: | There will be a gathering of motivated students and community members outside of ruggles T-station, at which point northeastern students will add their voices to the boston dream for darfur relay as strong members of the boston darfur movement. |
| Location: | Ruggles T station |
| Time: | 1:30 pm |
| Contact: | Sunish incubusman@gmail.com |
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Braintree
| Description: | The Cardinal Spellman High School chapter of STAND will be meeting in Braintree. We have recruited a number of other Spellman students to join us at the rally. Here, we will discuss China's role in Sudan, their hosting of the Olympics, and how pressure from students can make an impact on the situation in Sudan. From here, we will take the train to the Boston Common to participate in the larger Boston Rally. |
| Location: | Braintree T Station |
| Time: | 1 pm - 3 pm |
| Contact: | Emily Cunningham sugarmagnolia438@comcast.net |
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Cambridge
| Description: | Lighting of the torch following the Pontifical Divine Liturgy with participation of the Armenian Communities of New England. The Worldwide head of the Armenian Church will be lighting the torch, in the presence of the survivors of the Armenian genocide. The Pontiff will have lit the torch earlier in Armenia, as it travels the globe. |
| Location: | Holy Trinity Armenian Church, 145 Brattle Street, Cambridge |
| Time: | Approximately 1:30 pm |
| Contact: | nepontificalvisit@gmail.com |
| Organizer: | New England Pontifical Visit Committee, 2007 Pontifical visit of His Holiness Karek II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians, to the Diocese of the Armenian Church (Eastern) |
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Cambridge - Harvard University
| Description: | Students and community members will gather for a vigil and silent walk around Harvard Yard with signs and a symbolic (unlit) torch. At 2:40 PM, participants will take the T together to Boston for the statewide Olympic Torch Relay at Government Center. |
| Location: | Memorial Church Steps, Harvard Yard |
| Time: | 2:00 pm |
| Contact: | Amy Smekar aesmekar@fas.harvard.edu |
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Cape Cod
| Description: | Participants will relay the torch through Chatham, Harwich, and Dennis, then join together for a short ceremony. |
| Location: | Relay begins at Chatham Lighthouse, ceremony at Memorial Garden, Dennis |
| Time: | Relay begins at 10am, Ceremony 12 - 1pm |
| Contact: | Jeff Howell howellj@dy-regional.k12.ma.us |
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Newton
| Description: | The Newton South High School Chapter of STAND will organize Newton Residents to meet at the Newton Centre Train stop to all first attend the Boston Torch Relay before the culminating ceremony |
| Location: | Newton Centre train stop |
| Time: | 1:00 pm |
| Contact: | Kyoko Takenaka KTakenaka@Standnow.org |
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Somerville - Tufts
| Description: | There will be a gathering and small candlelight vigil at which Tufts students and members of the Sommerville/Medford community will speak and tell their story of how they came to be involved in the Darfur movement - we will then bring our stories and our flame to join the Boston torch relay. |
| Location: | Davis Square |
| Time: | 12:30 pm |
| Contact: | Sabina Carlson sabina.carlson@standnow.org |
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Waltham - Brandeis University
| Description: | We will meet as a group and learn about Dream for Darfur and hear a motivating speech from a member of the Brandeis Administration. We will then walk around campus encouraging people to join and us and educating them about what we are doing. We will meet back up as a group and talk about the relay in Boston on Sunday. There will be information and donated food at the end. |
| Location: | Brandeis University. Start and End on the Great Lawn outside the Shapiro Campus Center. March around campus. |
| Time: | Saturday October 6, 1-3 pm |
| Contact: | Anya Bergman ABergman@brandeis.edu |
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Winchester
| Location: | Town Green |
| Time: | 12pm |
| Contact: | Caroline Krantz Carolinekrantz533@hotmail.com |
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Westboro
| Description: | A Torch is on display outside the front door. Also, there are petitions for students and parents to sign. |
| Location: | Congregation Bnai Shalom |
| Time: | 9/23 and 9/30, 8:30 am- 1:00 pm |
| Contact: | Jeff Govendo jgovendo@innov-edge.com |
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How can my community get involved in MA Dream for Darfur?
Don't see your town listed? Mobilize your own community!
:: Download the Dream for Darfur Toolkit to get started ::
Organize a Dream for Darfur event in the morning or early afternoon of October 7. There are no limits to what you can do for this event. However, given the theme of the Olympics and the "torch relay", you should try to incorporate a torch into your event. It can be as large your own symbolic torch relay - for example, having students run a torch from your community's middle school to the high school, or around your town's center, etc., or as small as a gathering in a church, mosque, or synagogue that is somehow related to Darfur. Then, carry the torch for your community by bringing your entire group, a bus, or a representative to the Culminating Ceremony in Boston. At the Culminating Ceremony, a representative from each of the communities that held events will add their torch to the central flame while making a statement about their community's involvement in the event.
What the MA Dream for Darfur team can provide for your event:
- Media templates: press releases, letters to an editor, etc
- Outreach support to activists, coalition partners, others via Internet
- We will add you event to: www.madreamfordarfur.org
- Internet promotion including banners, social networking sites, blogs, and widgets
- Small need-based grants as needed (up to $100)
List my Event!
Send us an email, and try to include the following information:
- Your full name, phone number, and email address
- Short (5 sentence) description of your torch event.
- City and Zip Code of your event
- Start and End times for your event
- Start and End locations for your event
