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Carley Cole

Carley Cole has long been in the forefront of organizations and activities seeking to enrich the lives of young people. Carley began her own camping experience at a Colorado Reunion at the age of fifteen and has been a regular attendee of reunions and youth camps ever since.

A graduate of Graceland College and Colorado State University, Carley began her career as a teacher in a small rural school where most of her students were junior high age. Her life-long commitment to youth camps began soon after when a call went out for staff for a youth camp; Carley volunteered and has been volunteering ever since. Carley and her husband, Harvey, moved to Canada in 1963 where she began working with youth in the Fort Collins congregation. In addition to raising four children of their own, Than, Reen, Gil and Kye, Carley continued to find time to regularly provide ministry at camps and reunions. Throughout the years she served as counselor, drama coach, camp pastor, co-director, and director to name a few of the roles. Only when her own children reached senior high age and Carley felt she had embarrassed them enough by entrapping them in all of her drama and musical creations, did she relinquish her role at camp.

She found many other ways, however, to be involved with young people. On one occasion she survived a two-week trip of meals at McDonalds and sleeping bags on the floors of churches as she escorted forty senior-high youth on a trip to Palmyra, New York. On another occasion she took a youth group for a camp-out in the Canadian Rockies where she good naturedly forded ice cold mountain streams. For a number of summers she served as the cook for week camps hosted by the Sunchild Reserve and the Native Ministries Team.

In 1989 Carley’s interests and concerns expanded to include children internationally as she and her husband traveled to Nicaragua (where she became known as the "pied piper"), and later Guatemala, Costa Rica and Honduras. Since then she has served as president and member of the executive committee of World Accord and also as a member of the World Hunger Committee. As she herself says, "I am concerned about the plight of people around the world. The physical suffering and the emotional scaring taking place is unfathomable. I often feel a helpless rage at the injustice. It is frustrating that there are no easy solutions."

When notified of her nomination for this award, Carley in her humble way, stated she did not feel qualified to even be considered for the honor because she had done no more than many others in the church. And perhaps that is one of the reasons she was chosen. She has demonstrated so graphically in so many ways, the extraordinary things ordinary people can accomplish. It is with great please that we now present the International Human Rights Award for Service to Humanity to Carley Cole for her countless and exemplary contributions toward championing the rights of young people.

John K. Menzies

Ambassador John K. Menzies has long provided a shining, unique example of principled service and dedication. From the outset of his career with the United States Foreign service, John was dedicated to the principles that all are created equal, all enjoy inalienable rights, and all good comes from God. His entire career has been spent in dealing with areas of conflict: first in the former communist bloc, and later in the devastating breakup of Yugoslavia.

Working with cultural, educational, and information programs in Hungary and Bulgaria, John worked diligently to expand the gaps which allowed light to shine into the communist night. Always a champion of youth, he created exchange programs in which the Church has played a central role. Hundreds of young people received an education in the U. S. as a result of his efforts.

In Bulgaria, John played a major role in the transition from communism to democracy by organizing a broad range of support for the emerging democratic opposition. This support took the very practical form of faxes, computers, and vehicles, but extended to speeding past checkpoints in the dead of night to visit villages under martial law. Working with church members Dale Lick and Bill and Barbara Higdon, John created the American University in Bulgaria, an institution – now in its 9^th year—which brings together future leaders of the Balkans as it builds bridges between the countries of the region.

Back in the State Department, John oversaw a program of more than $350 million per year for humanitarian and democratic assistance for Eastern Europe, which helped countries make the transition to democracy and market economies. When the Bosnian war broke out, John organized a rapid U.S. humanitarian response which saved countless lives and lessened the suffering of thousands.

In 1994, John was sent to Sarajevo as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, and later as U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia. The former Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs said, "Literally sleeping next to his desk for over a year, John worked tirelessly to create the conditions for peace. The negotiation of the Dayton accords is in part a testimony to his dedication…he never [lost] sight of the real people and their suffering around him…At crucial junctions, their trust in him was the thread on which peace hung…When spirits in Sarajevo were at their worst, he was a steady beacon of hope."

John currently serves in the United States Institute of Peace. He also manages the U.S. response to Kosovo in the European Bureau of the State Department. It is with great pleasure that we now present the International Human Rights Award for Service to Humanity to John K. Menzies for his abiding commitment to human rights and his passionate quest to protect the threatened and oppressed peoples of the world.