Pickets for Peace Project
In a time when our world is heavily laden with international conflict & domestic division, it can sometimes feel as if we are, as a species, drifting further away from the core principles of empathy, love, & compassion for one another. Despite these challenges, which may be disheartening to some, The Rotary Club of Cambria has risen to the occasion. They have formed The Rotary Club of Cambria’s Peace Builders Committee by putting their heads together to find a way to bring the Cambria community some much-needed hope.
The Peace Committee thought, ‘What better way to help create a better world than to collaborate with those who, quite literally, ARE our future?’’ In that spirit, with the creative assistance of a kind-hearted & ambitious local art teacher Suzette Morro, they launched the Pickets for Peace Project. The project has rallied young people from Coast Union High & Santa Lucia Middle school to create beautiful, tangible expressions of love, peace & tolerance in the form of picket signs to be placed around town in high-traffic areas.
Keep your eyes peeled! These inspiring peace pickets will be appearing along both sides of the East & West End soon.
A student mixes paint for their Pickets for Peace Project contribution
A student sketches a Pickets for Peace contribution
Not only will these pieces serve as a welcomed expression of inspirational warmth & kindness to locals and visitors alike; They have also served as a unique form of art therapy for the students creating them. Suzette has taken the impressive initiative by building lesson plans & lectures centered around the increasingly relevant topics of peaceful conflict resolution, emotional awareness/expression, empathy, compassion, community engagement & more.
The Rotary Club of Cambria’s Peace Builders Committee is overjoyed at the wonderful response to the project from local businesses. So many have agreed to display a picket at their storefronts that all 96 pieces have prominent viewing locations.
The Peace Builders Committee is hoping to expand its picket display locations next year & make the Pickets for Peace Project an annual occurrence. If you are a Cambria business owner who is interested in displaying a picket next year please reach out to the Rotary contacts below:
Paula Porter, Program Chair
Janet Meyers, Peace Builders Committee Member – [email protected]
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