More Than 2,000 St. Louis Area Students Celebrate Peace
More than 2,000 St. Louis-area students will participate in the annual CHARACTERplus Peace Ball Celebration, held at the St. Louis Science Center, during seven sessions from February 26-29. The event is in its 9th year and engages K-8 students in activities, crafts and experiences designed by the Gateway to Peace Museum. High school students from St. Louis Public Gateway High, Francis Howell, Pattonville, Fox and Windsor serve as guides to these exhibits.
The students who participate in the celebrations represent 42 of the 74 schools that created Peace Balls, 50 percent more than the number of schools involved last year. The students of each school were involved in a creative, month-long focus on peace. They defined what peace looked like in their classrooms, hallways, buses, lunchrooms and communities. Adults in the schools, including teachers, administrators, nurses, cooks, bus drivers, janitors, office staff, and after-school leaders, awarded students with a strand of yarn for actions that demonstrated positive character traits and peaceful resolutions. These yarn strands were connected to create a Peace Ball, symbolizing the actions of the entire student body. This project reinforces students’ moral leadership, recognizing how their individual peacemaking actions contribute to the entire school community. Not a competition, the annual creation of the Peace Ball serves as a tangible and visual symbol of how positive individual action contributes to a school culture of peace and respect. School involvement is entirely voluntary.
The Peace Ball Celebration has been coordinated by CHARACTERplus, a division of Cooperating School Districts, and hosted at the St. Louis Science Center since its inception. In 2007, a three-year grant from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Charitable Trust allowed the project to expand. In addition to this sponsor, the Project is supported by the Gateway to Peace Traveling Museum, St. Louis County Police Academy, Magic House, Dierbergs Markets, Inc, and the Friends of CHARACTERplus. Volunteers are vital to the event and include parents from Lindbergh School District, students from Washington University and five high schools, and members of the CHARACTERplus Planning & Advisory Council.
From May 1 to September 30, the Peace Balls will be on display at the front entrance of the Magic House.
CHARACTERplus is a project of Cooperating School Districts that works to advance the cause of character education and sustain its impact on educators and students.
