Alan Dench was nominated Sunday, Oct. 17, to receive the 37th annual Harold and Alma Abel Peace Award at Pebble Hill Interfaith Church, 320 Edison-Furlong Road, Doylestown.
The award was established in 1984 on a grant from the Rev. Harold and Alma Able. Awardees are chosen on the basis of significant contributions to peace and social justice and are usually from the Delaware Valley. Dench received the Peace Award for the services he has offered Pebble Hill Church, a registered Peace Site with the World Citizen Peace Organization.
During the past year and a half during the pandemic, Dench has assumed many vital roles that include church treasurer, helping to keep Pebble Hill financially solvent, a leadership role on the Church Council, and supporting the building and grounds as gatekeeper of the community handling facility issues and rentals.
Dench has performed many of these vital roles for years. However, these “acts of service” have become more paramount throughout the pandemic. Dench has truly been the “go-to guy” with his technical skills managing the Pebble Hill website keeping communication flowing, as well as managing the Zoom sessions and physically hosting virtual and hybrid weekly Sunday Pebble Hill Celebrations.
During the Black Lives Matter student demonstrations that roiled Doylestown during the summer of 2020, Dench volunteered as a boundary-keeper sheltering the students from raucous counter-demonstrators in collaboration with “Rise Up Doylestown.”
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