Administrators, faculty, and members of the Student Government Association met yesterday afternoon for an intimate South African lunch with Peter and Linda Biehl to discuss “Living Values: The life, death, and legacy of Amy Biehl.”

Master of Ceremonies Mzamo Mangaliso, a Business Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, began the event.

“This is one of those occasions that happen once in a lifetime,” Mangaliso said. “Amy (Biehl) left a world wide challenge and her work from all that we have seen and read have far exceeded her age and have acted as a divine intervention for us all.”

The Biehls established the Amy Biehl Foundation in the United States and the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust in South Africa, after tragedy took their daughter, a Fulbright scholar while working in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Biehls have since taken the opportunity to speak to various universities around the country as well as work closely with a variety of organizations in the U.S. and in South Africa.

Chancellor Marcellette Williams with the help of Professor Emeritus Fred Tillis presented the Biehls with the Chancellor’s Medal.

“It is my privilege and honor to present the Chancellors Medal to you both,” Tillis said. “You have taken the tragic death of your daughter and created a positive and transformative energy that gives larger meaning not only to Amy’s life, but more importantly to the values she lived by.”

Tillis further explained that by the Biehls actions they have provided living values that we as a university aspire to live by.

The Biehls accepted the awards in shock, but with thankfulness as well.

“We all experience loss at different times, and it is very humbling to receive this award,” Mrs. Biehl said.

Mr. Biehl agreed by explaining that he two is humbled by this experience, and hopes to keep a lasting friendship with the University in the years to come.

“We are humbled by this experience and are looking forward to sharing more with you,” Mr. Biehl said. “We are already looking forward to returning and putting more rubber on the road.”

The Biehls gave each attendee of the luncheon a loaf of Amy’s Bread, which is sold in South Africa. The bread displays not only a picture drawn by a child in one of the Beihls after school programs, but instructions on how to avoid dangerous situations and prevention methods to the AIDS virus.

“Most of our programs are based on the community, and Peter had always had a dream of owning a bakery of his own, and it’s happened in South Africa,” Mrs. Biehl said. “Aside from a child’s work of art on the bag, with provided information and a hotline number on the back of the bag that people can get help or information about the AIDS virus.”

The luncheon closed in a South African song preformed by Mangaliso to all those in attendance.

“It was off the charts,” Mr. Biehl said. “We’ve visited a lot of outstanding universities, and this has by far been the most challenging and the most stimulating campus visit that we’ve had.”

Mr. Biehl continued by explaining that the students’ responses to them [the Biehls] have been provocative. He furthered by stating that students have been highly precipitant as well as share an exceptional awareness of what is going on around them.

“They share an exceptional awareness to what we and the world are going through, much of the questions related to despair, much to do with the events of 911(Sept. 11),” Mr. Biehl said. “What we try to do in response is help them out of it. We’re always looking for the eye of the tiger when we visit campuses, were always looking for more freedom fighters.”