Our Founders and History

MJ and Jerry Park are lifelong peace educators with over 35 years of experience leading year-round programs for children and adults. They founded Little Friends for Peace in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1981, and expanded their mission after moving their family to Mount Rainier, Maryland, in 1988, bringing peace-building programs to the D.C. metro area.
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In 1999, LFFP became a founding organization of the Perry School Community Services Center, where MJ and Jerry established a Peace Room serving the Youth Development Department and the Sursum Corda neighborhood. Their peace curriculum has since reached communities across the United States and internationally, including China and El Salvador.
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Proud parents of six children and married for more than 50 years, MJ and Jerry have always lived by the belief that peace is not just something to teach — it is a way of life. In 2006, LFFP was officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and today it continues to thrive through the generosity of dedicated donors and the commitment of its community partners.

MJ Park | Director and Co-Founder

MJ Park grew up in Minnesota in a Catholic family of eight and was raised with the values of St. Francis – to treat others the way you want to be treated, find a way to love and care for others, and to be an instrument of peace in the world. After graduating from Mount Mary College in 1970 with an education degree, she worked for nine years as a school teacher and in the summer co-directed Sundance Ranch, a residential children's camp in northern Michigan. After the camp closed, MJ and her husband Jerry used their leadership experience and answered the call of their neighbors to develop a summer peace camp, founding LFFP in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1981.

​In the decades since, MJ has raised six children in the way of peace and has spread the mission and curriculum of LFFP to four continents. You can still find MJ teaching peace in schools, building peace with various adult communities, leading peace circles online with peacemakers around the world, and witnessing for peace in the streets — all with a smile on her face and love in her heart. MJ is also a vowed Secular Franciscan with the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls (MN).

Jerry Park | Co-Founder

Jerry Park grew up in a Polish Catholic family in Milwaukee, WI, where he began studying to be a priest. He later left the seminary and joined the Peace Corps, working in India. After returning to the United States, Jerry worked as a director of religious education in Minnesota, where he met his wife MJ Park at a religious gift shop. He has completed graduate studies in theology, religious education, and counseling therapy. Jerry has since worked as a social worker with teen refugees; a nurse for children with physical and mental disabilities; a hospice nurse at Joseph's House, an HIV hospice for homeless men; at Christ House, a community of homeless men recovering from sickness and alcoholism; and again as a hospice nurse for private patients and their families.

With LFFP, Jerry continues to facilitate peace programming, most regularly at the Father McKenna Center, a day shelter for homeless men. He co-leads biweekly Peace Circles and enjoys leading men in pushups and cardio exercises during the large group peace sharing period. He is also very involved in Peace Camp, where he especially enjoys leading the cooperative games station. In addition to his work with LFFP, Jerry also continues prioritizing building a culture of peace in the United States and abroad as a Secular Franciscan with the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls (MN).