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I wanted to follow up about our community’s experience of planting and dedicating the Peace Pole in our town of Chappaqua.  The event happened on Friday, February 3rd, 2017 at 12 noon.  Chappaqua Girl Scout Troop 2352 dedicated the Peace Pole with a few speeches, quotes, the poem, “Listen to the Musn’ts” by Shel Silverstein and the song, “Lean on Me.”

Our community, especially the local bookstore ‘Scattered Books’ and its owner, Laura Scott Schaefer and manager, Kimberly Goebel, have been incredibly supportive.

Our troop hopes to continue to bring the message of peace to life.  The planting of the Peace Pole initiated the girls’ bronze award project, a project that must be meaningful and sustainable, so we will be in the throes of planning ongoing activities and events which bring home the message of peace, tolerance and empathy.  We are so excited to begin this work and thankful for all of your support.

Thanks again for all of your help,
Tara Ramirez

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Artwork from 2016 Peace Pals International Art Competition  were displayed at the “Family Education Center” (also known as the “FABI Center”)  in the town of Celle, Germany.

Celle is located one hour south of Hamburg.

In the Family Education Center, parents and children can subscribe to a variety of courses, such as:  studying foreign languages, computer classes, arts, culture, and more.  FABI Center is open to the public seven-days a week.

Mrs. Kristina Bork,  an Art Instructor  at the FABI Center, introduced the 2016 Peace Pals International theme  “Unity in diversity” to the Management.

It was agreed that 50 pieces of artwork will be exhibited from November 2016 to January 2017.

The local newspaper of Celle reported on the inauguration of the exhibition. At one stage,  a few Syrian refugee women studying German at the FABI Center looked at the painting trying hard to understand what the exhibition is all about. They were so pleased to find the peace message,  “MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH” written in the Arabic language on one of the paintings submitted by a child from the United Arab Emirates.

https://www.fabi-celle.de/

 

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October 19, 2016

For the past 19 years Peace Pals International has been holding an annual art contest which invites children from all over the world to participate and share their artwork. This year our theme was “Oneness with Diversity.”

On June 12, 2016, 49 innocent people were killed and 53 were wounded in a senseless act of hate. In India a 13 year old girl learned of the news of the horrific shooting at the Orlando Pulse Nightclub and chose to paint a memorial to honor all those who lost their lives or were injured.

Sanika’s response was to create a powerful work of art that would have the potential to heal those of us who were affected by this tragedy.When we received the artwork at Peace Pals International, we knew we would have to share it with the world.

We give deep gratitude to Sagar Kambil of Gurukul School of art in Mumbai, India for encouraging young artist such as Sanika to express their love and humanity through art.

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A Peace Pals Art Exhibition was hosted in the lobby of the United Nations Headquarters in New York between October 17th thought the 29th. The exhibition was made possible through the kind sponsorship of the Japan Mission highlighting the theme, Love to Hiroshima   Love to Nagasaki.  The Exhibition auspiciously coincided with the meetings of the first committee on disarmament held at the UN and the 2016 Week of Spirituality.

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September 22nd – 25th 2016
Florianopólis, Brazil

Jules Lamore staff of The World Peace Prayer Society had the privilege of participating in the 10th World Peace Forum which was being held this year in Florianopólis, Brazil.

The event hosted close to 2000 peacemakers who participated in numerous events and workshops.  The World Peace Prayer society brought three of their projects to The World Peace Forum; The Peace Pole Project, Peace Pals International and World Peace Youth.

On Thursday, September 22nd the streets of Florianopólis were filled with the March of The Babies which included a beautiful flag ceremony which took us all the offices of the Mayor of Florianopólis.
When we arrived to the Mayors office a beautiful Peace Pole was presented to Mayor César Souza, Junior on behalf of the city of Florianopólis.  A beautiful ceremony took place in the city offices where a hundred people joined in to celebrate and welcome the Peace Pole to the city.  The room was filled with young people holding the flags from every nation.  At the end of the ceremony everyone joined in by saying “Que a paz prevaleça no mundo” – “May Peace Prevail On Earth” in Portuguese.

The Peace Pole which has 8 languages (English, Japanese, Portuguese, French, Arabic, German, Italian and Spanish) will find a permanent home in the Old House and Jail which was built between 1771 and 1780. The plans are to turn the old jail into a museum of Peace.

Friday morning World Peace Youth held its 3rd live webinar from the World Peace Forum and invited youth from around the world to take part.  The moderators (as seen in the photo) interviewed speakers on various topics.

The live webinar was broadcast live in an auditorium where youth in Brazil could also participate.  Please click here to watch the live webinar on YouTube.

On Sunday during the closing ceremonies, Peace Pals International announced the winners of the The Peace Pals International Arts Exhibition and Awards during a live broadcast.  The stage was filled with 12 young people dressed in their native costumes who were there to announce each of the 12 winners.  We thanked the 12 young people by presenting them each with a mini peace pole.  You can watch the live event on YouTube and visit Peace Pals International to see the winners and finalists.  At the end of the awards presentation you could hear the voices of a thousand saying three times  “Que a paz prevaleça no mundo” – “May Peace Prevail On Earth” in Portuguese.

There were so many wonderful organizations and projects participating at The World Peace Forum in Brazil this year. Elephants for Peace. The elephant was chosen as a symbol because it marries power with peace. Here people were invited to paint their vision of the Elephant.  The finished artwork was spectacular.

We had the joy of being able to listen to the orchestra of Roney Marczak.  Roney is an incredible musician who educates marginalized youth in Brazil through music.  Learn more about Roney Marczak and his music.

We wish we could share all of the spectacular people and their projects with you.  If you visit The World Peace Forum on their Facebook Page, you will see more.

May Peace Prevail On Earth – “Que a paz prevaleça no mundo”

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In 2016, we held our 2nd annual Peace Pals International Art Exhibition in the Citizen’s Gallery of Funabashi City in Chiba, Japan.  It was held from August 10th to August 14th.

The Peace Pals International Art Exhibition was part of our peace exhibition, entitled,  “Vibration of Love and Peace” which also included paintings, calligraphy, photographs, origami art and hand crafts.

The visitors were  impressed by the vibrant colors in each piece of artwork and the artistic ability of each child to express their “pure intention for peace.”

The visitors happily helped themselves to the Peace Pals postcards and Origami bookmarks as their souvenirs.

It was very pleasing for us to see some visitors return again along with their friends  for the 2nd annual Peace Pals International Art Exhibition.

Respectfully submitted by: Yoko Okita

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