One local charity has been crowned a winner.
PeacePlayers International, founded by D.C. natives and brothers Brendan and Sean Tuohey, was one of the 26 organizations chosen this week by Prince William and Kate Middleton to be part of the Royal Wedding Charitable Gift Fund. The royal couple has asked people to donate to causes close to their hearts instead of sending them gifts. It was PeacePlayers International’s work in Northern Ireland that caught their attention.
“It was quite out of nowhere, so we were shocked,” founder Brendan Tuohey told Yeas & Nays.
Sean had the idea to start PeacePlayers a decade ago, Brendan explained. Both Tuohey brothers had played basketball at Gonzaga High School and then in Ireland after college, with Sean Tuohey living in Northern Ireland. “Basketball there is one of the few neutral sports,” Brendan explained. Sean saw firsthand how sports were able to unite protestant and Catholic kids.
“Once you bring kids together from opposite sides of a conflict, you put them on the same team, you say ‘win,’ the competition takes over,” Brendan said .”It’s just a great foundation to build trust.”
With that idea in mind, the Tuohey brothers first brought the concept to Durban, South Africa, then returned to Northern Ireland. They also opened up shop in Israel and the West Bank and in Cyprus.
PeacePlayer’s Northern Ireland Managing Director Gareth Harper contacted the D.C.-based brothers with the happy news. Harper got an additional surprise last week when he met the royal couple in Belfast. “He met Prince William and Miss Middleton and was really blown away about how much they knew about PeacePlayers and that they had personally chosen us to be part of their day,” Brendan said. “I think they are just really going about it in a smart, classy way.”
