Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • WINTER 2017 • PAN PIPES 9 G H I J K M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Excerpt from SAI: A History by K Marie Stolba, page 485 When President Dwight D. Eisenhower founded "The President's People to People Program" in 1956 to advance tolerance and world peace, he held a conference at the White House to which he invited America's business, cultural, educational, and sports leaders. The basic goals of the President's program were (a) to enhance tolerance and understanding among all peoples, and (b) to support youth development and the needs of youth. Underlying those goals were several stated basic beliefs, one of which was that "international educational and cultural exchange among youth further ensures long-term friendship and understanding." The program was vast and far-reaching. It was set up in more than forty Committees each dealing with one of various areas of interest. A few of those areas were Fine Arts, the Handicapped, Medicine, Music, Sci- ence, Sister Cities, and Sports. The first Chairman of the Music Committee was Eugene Ormandy. He was succeeded by Catherine Filene Shouse (Honorary) who was donor of the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts. Ruth Sickafus became the Music Committee's Executive Director. (While People to People was under the US Government, no hyphens were used in the name. When SAI took over the Music Committee of People to People, it became the People-to-People Project, with hyphens.) Early in John F. Kennedy's Administration, the Peace Corps was founded to serve as our government's program of citizen diplomacy, and government funding for People to People activities was phased out. In 1961, the name of the government program was officially changed to "People to People International," and its headquarters were relocated to Kansas City, MO, where The Hallmark Foundation took over its operation. Soon, however, lack of funding caused many of the People to People Committees to cease operations. Late in 1964, the People to People Music Committee was in danger of meeting the same fate. Ruth Sickafus was aware of the situation and talked with SAI's National President, Jeannette Kirk, about it. Though the basic beliefs and goals of the People to People program had remained the same, financial support for them was lacking. Sigma Alpha Iota, perceiving in them an affinity with some of its own aims and recognizing an opportunity to expand the fraternity's service, was quick to participate in the People to People Music Program. With Ruth Sickafus as Project Director, the SAI People-to-People Project prospered and became an integral part of the fraternity's outreach activity under the International Music Fund and, later, under SAI Philanthropies, Inc. (See Encore Q, Philanthropies VI.) The program promoted the welfare of music in needy countries by providing worthy but poverty-stricken or war-damaged institutions in foreign countries with tangible music and/or music-related materials that they could not otherwise obtain. Many stories could be told of how the SAI People-to-People Music Program has benefited people and institu- tions around the world by providing them with unused books, music scores, music stands, musical instruments, and even concerts. With the guidance and supervision of Ruth Sickafus, music instruments, music stands, and hope have been given to institutions in many countries that might never have the financial resources or budget to purchase them. In 1992, Ruth Sickafus prepared a history of People-to-People as it related to SAI Philanthropies, Inc. That history is in the Fraternity archives. The original People-to-People Project logo from the 1950s. GRACE NOTES A History of People-to-People At left, Haiti's Orchrestre Bon Sauveur/Zanmi Lasante Cange perform with equipment supported and provided by P2P. At right, two students of Ontario, Canada's Sounds of the Next Generation with instruments purchased by P2P in 2013.

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