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Featured Sites |
PeacePartners, Inc. honors our valued partners by celebrating their passion for peace, their
creative ideas, and the wonderful implementation strategies they incorporate.
As we continue to support our partners, it is our privilege to showcase PeaceBuilders sites.
Don't just take our word for it. Read about some featured sites as they explored their problems,
developed their PeaceBuilders solution, and discovered positive outcomes! We invite you to sit
back and explore the fantastic PeaceBuilding events happening throughout the United States and
U.S. Territories. |
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| Desert Winds Elementary School - Tucson, AZ |
Peace grows at Desert Winds Elementary School!
The children here learned important lessons about PeaceBuilding through the school's gardening program. The project started with a winter garden in which the students grew carrots, broccoli, cilantro and onions. As the winter garden grew, the students began tending a spring garden and the project continued throughout each season.
With a lot of help from a determined staff, the children at Desert Winds learned the necessity of seeking wise people to help support this project. Facing a common shortage of resources, they secured a grant from the Western Growers Association, which allowed them to purchase materials for the brick wall and the mulch and the wheel barrow. The local Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse donated vegetables and flowers. Ace Hardware donated rakes, shovels and gloves.
The children working on this project were divided into two groups and were responsible for planning, constructing and tending the gardens. Keeping the theme of peace in mind, one group called their project the "PeaceGarden" and the other called theirs "Let's Make Peace Together."
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Working together and helping each other, the children dug a trench and installed the drip irrigation hose.
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They raked the dirt and mulch. Through teamwork they got the job done quickly!
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This hardworking team of PeaceBuilders shoveled this mountain of dirt into the wheel barrow, load after load, and transported it to the planters.
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Even powerful PeaceBuilders need a break!
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Have gloves, have shovel-ready to build some peace!
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When it was time to plant the vegetables, they decided together which plants went where.
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Students prepared the soil and dug holes for planting beautiful flowers.
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After checking the garden for weeds, these 3rd graders enjoyed the peaceful garden they had created.
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As the staff at Desert Winds knows, planning, tending, and harvesting a garden is a concrete, hands-on activity that shows children the necessity of nurturing living things. By carefully tending a garden and seeing the effect-healthy, beautiful plants-children learn the enormous affect a positive environment has on living beings. Just as they tend the garden, they must cultivate their homes, school and community in order to create peaceful environments in which everyone can grow and learn.
Praise to the wonderful group of adults who led this project. Praise also to the students of Desert Winds for working hard to build these gardens and a more peaceful school for all. Peace is growing at Desert Winds!
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