“If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Our Afterschool coordinator Allie partnered with her church Northlake Church of Christ to give the children at Willow Branch the opportunity to learn why peace is such an important topic. “Peace Playground” was an event held at Willow Branch every Wednesday over the summer for kids of all ages to come together and share how to be a good neighbor. The focus was the principles of peace from Martin Luther King, Jr., which include: “a loving community makes a peaceful world,” “fight bad things, not bad people,” “be peaceful when others are not because that is the peaceful world we want,” “be peaceful on the outside and inside” and “the whole world is on the side of justice.” For each principle, there was a story that gave an example of that principle, and the children then broke up into groups where they expressed the principle through different forms of art like art, dance, singing and acting. Each group created a banner that represented their principle, presented their banner to the rest of the group, and the event ended with ice cream and dancing! Although this was the last event for the summer program, all the children at Willow are looking forward to the upcoming school year and the learning activities that Allie has in store for them.