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Lakeland University Awarded Peace Prize
Our home campus, Lakeland University in Sheboygan, Wisconsin was recently awarded the Ceil De Prey Peace Award, for “its commitment to academic excellence, diversity and respect, service and stewardship, integrity and responsibility, and faith and religious expression. These are values which need to be present and nurtured for all of humanity to thrive and to life peacefully.”
The award is named after Wisconsin peace activist Cecilia "Ceil" J. De Prey, who passed away in November 2023. De Prey, raised near Green Bay alongside ten other siblings, spent most of her career as a medical researcher, specializing in hematology, or the study of blood disorders. But what may have given De Prey the most satisfaction was providing what became known as "Ceil's Meal."
De Prey prepared her own soups (along with other meals) and, at least four times a year, served them to the Sheboygan community. Usually she did this on the "fifth Saturday" of a month, and hundreds of residents came to the First Congregational Church in Sheboygan to enjoy one of Ceil's meals, free of charge.
The reverend of the church, Julie Hollister, commented back in 2014 that Ceil's meals were vital toward bringing the community together. “Having healthy, nutritious food that is home-cooked is so important," Hollister said. "And then also having people sit down at the table across from someone they don’t know and then starting up a conversation, and the sense of fellowship that comes out of this."
For De Prey, it was also a chance for people to talk and listen to each other. “Sheboygan is becoming more and more diverse," she said in February 2014. "We have to listen to other people in order to understand what the world is like.”
De Prey was also an actively involved in the planning of the Sheboygan Peace Park, a spot visited by LUJ students after choosing to transfer to home campus to finish their studies.
For more about Cecilia J. De Prey, see The Green Bay Gazette, and the Center for Progressive Reform.
To learn more about our home campus, visit the website here.
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