What is the Ribbon International?

The Ribbon is made up of countless panels of cloth each showing peoples desire for disarmament, a healthy environment or for peace. The original theme of the Ribbon "What I cannot bear to think of as lost forever in a nuclear war." The concept originated with Justine Merritt in 1982 while living in Denver, CO. She requested friends and relatives to create their representations of cloth segments using sewing, painting or any other suitable medium. The panels measured three feet by one and a half feet with a tie on each corner so that they could easily be joined together. The idea spread rapidly through places of worship, schools and organizations. The first Ribbon events were held in the United States and Japan. They culminated on August 4, 1985 commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the nuclear bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On that day eighteen miles of Ribbon panels were joined together in Wash., D.C. and in Hiroshima the A-Bomb Memorial Dome was encircled with Ribbons. Since then the Ribbon has become an ongoing project in countries around the world.

The Ribbon

The Ribbon

Friday, June 5, 2009


World Trade Center Memorial site, representatives from Church Womean United joined other UN NGO's for the Interfaith Prayer, Sept. 11, 2005.




Ribbon exhibit, Palais Des Nations, Geneva, for the Non Proliferation Treaty of nuclear conference, 1990.


Ribbons created by students in Monterrey, Mexico for the culture conference and presented to The Ribbon International, Oct. 2007.




Ribbons displayed annually at the World Peace Society festival, Amenia, NY, Aug. 1999.


Lake Havasu City, AZ, Jamaica after school program, Oct. 2007. Ribbons have been created and displayed annually in recognition of United Nations Day. Marlene and Tom DeFilippis have over
seen these events since the early 1990's - first in Gas City, Indiana then the move to Lake Havasu, AZ. (more to be posted)


Sept. 11, 2003, Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Park, Ribbon joining and Interfaith prayer for Peace is prayed.

June 2008, 50 th Anniversary of the United Nations firts opening at Lehman College before it's home in NYC.


First photo, Culture Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, with Michele and Noomi, 1997.

Second photo, Ribbon exhibit at Rockefeller Plaza, subway display window, throughout the 1990's, various Ribbons were displayed.

Ribbons were created and displayed outside UN Headquarters, August 1997, by International Mothers of Liberia, panel tells a story of how Liberian mothers do not want their children taken and made to fight in a war.

Exhibit at Bonadssamlingen in Stenstorp, Sweden, March 1997. The embroidery museum has a collection of Ribbons.


A Peace Ribbon was presented by Loretta Kepler to the wife of the
Rev. Hector Mendez, minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Havana, Cuba, October, 2000. "I wasn't expecting to speak in front of the whole congregation, but that Sunday the Reverand Mendez introduced our gruop and brought out the Ribbon. With words in Spanish, that were pulled from my past I said that these were two islands in the same sea, and that our one hope as for peace. People cried."

Penn State University, 2004, tree planting, faculty and students peace event.

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