Noah Ball-Burack has been playing Ultimate on school teams since fifth grade. When he started playing for Berkeley High Coup, his high school’s team, Ultimate became a prominent part of his life. Entering a school of 3,400 students, the freshman Ultimate team quickly became his second family. Not only did the sport itself become Noah’s absolute favorite activity, but he developed a growing appreciation for the Ultimate community’s positive culture and commitment to social issues, such as gender equity. After Ultimate, Noah’s second greatest passion is social justice work, so when he heard about a way to play and teach Ultimate while supporting the peace effort in Israel/Palestine it sounded like a dream come true. Noah could not be more thrilled to be returning as a Leader in Training at Ultimate Peace for his second summer and is extremely thankful for your support.
After Camp last summer, Noah wrote: “I saw these young children treat each other with more respect and kindness than many adults do in their own communities. Camp is a real life version of the world in which I dream of living. Many LITs expressed to me that their best friends are from the other culture. To put this into perspective, some also admitted to me that before joining Ultimate Peace, they hated people from the other culture or believed almost all of them to be bad. I was lucky enough to witness just a tiny bit of political dialogue and was in awe of the respect and kindness with which LIT’s treated each other despite their unmistakably different perspectives and the pain they felt. UP is the most inspiring, meaningful, and thought-provoking journey I have ever taken.”