Ivan Suvanjieff was talking with some gang members in his neighborhood in North Denver when he discovered that even hardened youth appreciated peaceful methods of resolve. Suvanjieff first conceived the idea for the project PeaceJam after that exchange. It was the summer of 1994. Two years later in 1996, his now wife, Dawn Engle, and Suvanjieff held the first PeaceJam in Denver, Colorado. Suvanjieff has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for this year.