Staff Report

CANFIELD — For more than 29 years, the Peace Light from Bethlehem has been spread throughout Europe by the cooperation of the Austrian Broadcasting Company, Austrian Airlines and the Austrian Boy Scouts and Girl Guides.

The light will be brought Saturday to Boys Scouts Camp Stambaugh in Canfield.

Beginning in 2000, the light has been flown to the United States and was taken to Ground Zero in New York in 2002.

The 2019 arrival of the Bethlehem Peace Light is due to arrive this year at JFK International Airport in New York on Friday.

Mike Kupec, local Peace Light coordinator with Boys Scouts Great Trail Council, said the International Peace Light will arrive in the Youngstown area 12:30 p.m. Saturday with a welcoming ceremony at Camp Stambaugh Scout Shop, 3712 Leffingwell Road, Canfield.

It will be available there noon to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.

On Dec. 12, the Peace Light will be taken to the JMJ Spiritual Connection store, 3408 Canfield Road, Youngstown, by the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts from St. Christine Church at 5:30 p.m. It will remain and be hosted there for the public to receive through Christmas Eve during the store’s normal business hours.

Kupec said individuals and organizations of all faiths and / or denominations may take a windproof container or lamp to light with the Nativity of Bethlehem flame.

The Great Trail Council is looking for additional locations to host the Peace Light to make it available to more people in the community. Contact Kupec for information, or to offer to host the Peace Light at 330-519-3988 or mike.kupec@gmail.com

The Peace Light originates in the grotto where the Christ child was born in Bethlehem and is delivered by a young Austrian child to the Austrian Airlines, where it is placed in two blastproof miner’s lamps and flown from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Vienna, Austria.

The light is then distributed throughout 20 European countries and overseas, including North America, via land routes and the Austrian Airlines as a symbol of peace.

The Brooklyn and Queens Diocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting is sponsoring the arrival of the Peace Light in the United States.

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