HEBRON — More than 120 students gathered in the Hebron Station School gymnasium Tuesday morning to form a human peace sign as they listened silently to John Lennon’s song, “Imagine.”
“Look how far we’ve come,” sixth-grade student Zane Dustin, a member of the school’s student council, told students in grades one to six.
Standing on top of the bleachers with co-organizer and classmate Emma Timberlake-Knapp to address the students, Dustin recalled international efforts to organize Peace Day, while Timberlake-Knapp quoted the Dalai Lama saying, “’Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.’”
The students were participating in the school’s first Peace Day started by staff member Greg Grigsby, who asked for volunteers to join in efforts to initiate activities to promote peace.
“He brought us together to think about it,” said Dustin, who along with Timberlake-Knapp organized the human peace symbol. Other students, including Jayra Bray, Hannah Hartnett, Hayley Pinara, Sarah Malo and Malcala Martin, organized other activities such as creating a large peace symbol poster and talking to second-grade students about what peace means.
Grigsby said he asked for volunteers to create Peace Day events after watching British actor and producer Jeremy Gilley’s documentary, “The Day After Peace,” and to coincide with International Peace Day, which was held last week. The film documents the first polio vaccinations on Sept. 21, 2007, in parts of Afghanistan.
International Peace Day provides an opportunity for people around the world to create practical acts of peace on the same day.
Following the schoolwide Peace Day activity, several students went to second-grade classrooms to talk about what peace means. Students were asked to describe situations where they were nice or not nice to someone else.
“Everyone’s (answers) could be different but they should go around being nice,” Pinara said.
“Peace should happen every day,” said Timberlake-Knapp, who wore a “Cats For Peace” T-shirt.
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