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07.01.05 - When Sonoma business owner and fair-trade activist Candi Smucker received notice a few weeks ago confirming that she was one of 1,000 women worldwide whose names had been submitted to the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize committee, she thought to herself, "That's nice," and set the letter aside.

The reality didn't start to hit, Smucker said, until she began getting e-mails from the U.S. coordinator for the 1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize project, firming up details for announcing the nominees' names on Wednesday, June 29. "I thought, 'Oh dear, they're serious,'" Smucker recalled with a laugh. "The first time I had to tell someone out loud that I was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, I got the giggles. How could this be happening to me? This is so big and so important, it's overwhelming."

The 1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize project was created in 2003 by Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, a member of the Swiss National Council in Bern and of the European Council in Strasbourg. The goal is to highlight the fact that peace is not achieved by one or two high-profile people but by unknown multitudes who dedicate their lives to creating peace and justice, whether it be on a local, regional, national or international level.

"The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded for big things and big things are wonderful," Smucker said. "But where change really happens is when multiple people do small acts over and over again. This project honors all those small acts. ... It is many people doing small things that makes the biggest difference for world peace."

The 1,000 Women project focuses on individuals from all walks of life who devote themselves to a future free of violence, whether it is working on human rights and justice, meeting basic human needs such as food and shelter, combating poverty in the service of social and economic justice, preventing physical harm and discrimination, or dealing with the tragedies caused by wars and other violent and armed conflicts. The 1,000 "peace women" are symbolic of the hundreds of thousands more who work without recognition all over the globe. Last year more than 2,000 women from 153 countries were nominated for the project; the 1,000 names that were announced Wednesday were selected from that group.

A friend nominated Smucker because of her outstanding dedication to fair trade - creating jobs for underemployed women in economically developing regions of the world. Smucker said she was honored and humbled to be included as one of the 1,000 women for peace.

"It is three steps past humbling," Smucker said. "It is an overwhelming responsibility."

The list includes 40 women from the United States, 14 of whom are from the San Francisco Bay Area.

On Wednesday, friends drove Smucker to San Francisco where 10 of the local nominees and one from Southern California gathered for a reception and news conference. Each woman spoke briefly, explaining her area of dedication and her thoughts and feelings about the 1,000 Women project.

The nominees included those promoting peace and justice through the creative arts such as music or dance.

"It's a concept award to me. I believe in the concept," nominee and singer-songwriter Holly Near, of Sebastopol, said. "It actually pleases me more to be on the list than it would to be nominated alone. ... This, to me, is more exciting."

Near added that she hopes the 1,000 Women project will change the way people conceive of how peace and justice can be achieved.

"I think cooperation is essential to survival," Near said.

The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901; the first female recipient was Bertha von Suttner of Austria, who was honored 100 years ago, in 1905, for her activities as honorary president of the Permanent International Peace Office. Over the years only 12 women have won the Nobel Peace Prize; all the other winners have been male.

In San Francisco on Wednesday, several of the nominees praised the 1,000 Women project for highlighting the idea that peace is achieved through the ongoing efforts of many people and not just one or two, and expressed their confidence that the prize committee will embrace that concept.

"I'm not a person who likes to cause problems, I like to solve them. But we've presented a real problem to the Nobel Prize committee," said nominee Anne Firth Murray, founding president of the Global Fund for Women.

The winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in October. According to the rules, it can be awarded simultaneously to no more than three individuals or one organization.

So three women have been chosen to represent the 1,000 Women for Peace, as proxies for the 997 others on the list. If they win, they will accept the prize in the name of all 1,000 and the money will be used for their various projects.

Whether or not they win the Nobel Prize, a book on the 1,000 women nominees will be published this fall, presenting their work, their visions and their life stories. A traveling exhibit will feature texts and pictures documenting their varied accomplishments.

"While I love the opportunity this gives each of us to promote the causes that are dear to our hearts, for this project to win the Nobel Peace Prize would give tremendous encouragement to the millions of women who are doing small things for peace," Smucker said. "The little things do count."

Born and raised in Mt. Vernon, Wash., as an adult Smucker moved to Chicago where she worked as the vice president of operations for a bookstore franchise. But she gave up her corporate job to become involved with the fair-trade movement, which ensures the original artisan and everyone involved in bringing an item to market earns a living wage rather than producing huge corporate profits at the expense of workers in developing nations.

While in Chicago she married Brian Smucker, and together they volunteered their talents to the Mennonite Central Committee. In an unusual move, they were offered two possible postings - one to work with an established artisan program in Bangladesh, the other to become volunteer "store planters," creating more retail outlets for the products being created worldwide.

"Over and over we had heard that the biggest bottleneck was in helping the artisans in having more retail outlets," Candi Smucker recalled.

While the thought of living in Bangladesh for several years was exciting, she and her husband elected to spend the next four years opening fair-trade stores in cities throughout the United States. Still committed to their fair-trade ideals, the couple moved to the Sonoma Valley in 1997 and started their own shop, named Baksheesh. They opened a second Baksheesh in Healdsburg in September 2003 and are in the planning stages for a third location. They are also considering collaborating on a book about their adventures in fair trade.

"What we can really do to help underemployed women is to look at our dollars and how we spend them," Smucker said. "You may vote in a ballot booth, but what really counts is where you spend your money."

More information about the 1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize project and brief biographies of most of the nominees are online at www.1000peacewomen.org.

The Sonoma Baksheesh is located at 423 First St. W.; call 939-2847; e-mail baksheesh@vom.com, or check online at www.vom.com/baksheesh.

The Healdsburg location is 106 B Matheson St.; call 473-0880 or e-mail baksheesh@sonic.net.

Patricia Lynn Henley is a freelance writer and editor. She can be reached at 227-8203, plhenley@vom.com or www.patricialynnhenley.com.

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