International Day of Peace Celebration

ABC News– The sweet voices of children singing “Light a Candle for Peace” will kick off Richland One’s celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace on Wednesday, September 21 at 9:30 a.m. at the Eau Claire High School Theatre.

The district’s celebration is officially recognized/registered with the UN, which gave Richland One a designated time (9:30 a.m.) to have students sing that song, with the global goal of having it sung somewhere around the world for 24 hours. As a continual reminder of the importance of peace, Richland One also will unveil and dedicate a Peace Pole that will be permanently installed on the grounds of the Stevenson Administration Building.

In addition, a Peace Dove Award will be presented to a citizen who has been a peacekeeper in his or her service to our community this year. The celebration also will include students sharing poems and reciting the word “peace” in various languages. The event will culminate with the ringing of the Bell of Peace and a moment of silence.

Students then will be issued a challenge: to use the pieces of fabric they have been given to design a small flag depicting what peace means to them. All the flags from schools across the district will be used to create one long stream of flags that will be displayed and shared throughout Columbia to encourage everyone to seek peace in their own way. The program will end as it began, with students singing various songs of peace as they board their buses to return to school. The celebration is jointly sponsored by the district’s Montessori schools (Brockman, Logan, Caughman Road and Gadsden elementary schools and the Richland One Middle School Montessori Program at W.G. Sanders Middle