Willem Zuur

Was born in Iowa to Hubert and Kristy Zuur. The parents split and the mother took the 3 children. The family then lived in Pine Hill, New Jersey with Willem's grandmother Audrey Doty. His mother then remarried and moved to an old farm in Winslow, New Jersey. Willem began using drugs when he was 11. After progressively worsening, he failed the 9th grade due to lack of attendance. By the middle of the next year he had already failed again the 9th grade due to his lack of attendance. He dropped out of highschool at the age of 15 and moved in with his grandmother in Pine Hill. In the summer of 2001, Willem began to practice a meditation called Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) based on Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. Two months after practicing, he had quit using drugs, cigarets, stopped cursing, and after passing the GED was a freshman in college at 16. On his spring break of his first year of college, Willem conducted a weeklong sit-in and one day hunger strike outside the Chinese Consulate in NYC after hearing about orders from Jiang Zemin, the Chinese Leader, to "shoot on sight" and "kill without mercy" Falun Gong practitioners in China. When the Chinese Leader went to Iceland on a tour of European countries, Willem also went to join the peaceful protest of Falun Gong practitioners there to end the persecution in China [of Falun Gong]. When he was 18 Willem went to China on vacation. The last day of his weeklong stay after the driver was pulled over by Beijing police, he told them that Willem was a Falun Gong practitioner. Willem and his friend were then unlawfully arrested by police because of their affiliation with the practice. When he was 19 he participated in the "Pedals of Peace " bike from Washington, DC to Chicago, Illinois to help rescue the 14 million children in China who are persecuted because of either their parents or personal belief in Falun Gong.