Spotlight on Kentucky

U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines members in Kentucky have been doing impressive and inspiring outreach as of late. Cindy and Nancy Scheldorf, Mary and Reverend Andy Rutrough, John Capillo, and Nathan Burns traveled to Washington D.C. during "Ban Landmines Week" in order to exchange ideas with landmine ban advocates from throughout the country and the world. They also met with Kentucky legislators to urge them to support the Landmine Elimination and Victim Assistance Act of 2001. The group showed legislators a certificate from the Mayor of Louisville proclaiming the first full week in March "Ban Landmines Week." Republican Senator Mitch McConnell responded with his co- sponsorship of the bill.

Since Ban Landmines Week, Cindy Scheldorf and her friends have organized landmines presentations and encouraged letter-writing efforts at three United Methodist Women's groups (with commitments and dates to speak at four more). They have gotten "Banning landmines" to be the Priority Social Action Issue for the Louisville District United Methodist Women this year, which has already published a newsletter article on the issue. They submitted landmines articles to FORsooth, the Louisville Chapter Fellowship of Reconciliation newspaper, and RESPONSE magazine, a national United Methodist Women publication.

In the near future, they will be teaching campers at the United Methodist District Day Camp about the effects of landmines, particularly on children. They also plan to organize a shoe pile display and letter-writing table at the Kentucky Annual Conference of United Methodists. They hope to recruit more Kentuckians to get involved in the campaign in order to demonstrate to Kentucky legislators and President Bush that people in the bluegrass state feel strongly that the United States should ban this devastating and cowardly weapon.