Undaunted by the scattered rain showers and lowering skies last Friday, students and staff at Clearview Elementary School in Clear Lake took to the outdoors to create a mobile sculpture on the campus front lawn in honor of World Peace Day.

 

This was the fifth-annual “Pinwheels for Peace” celebration held at the school, said art teacher Kathy Gerdts-Senger, whose third-grade classes have traditionally been responsible for creating the pinwheels in the art classroom for the end-of-week event each year.

 

Once all the students had gathered their stick-mounted pinwheels Friday morning, they trooped out through the school main entrance and into a brisk wind, which set the pinwheels in rapid motion to the delight of the participants.  As they moved out onto the lawn, the followed the pre-set marking on the ground and used their pinwheels to form a large international “Peace” sign on the lawn.  Once the sculpture was completed, the students and teachers stood outside the circle to sing “Peace Will Come,” accompanied by music teacher Karen Ingeman on her guitar.

 

A flock of white doves has been released as part of the program in past years, but the birds and their handlers were taking part in a cross-country competition in another state this year and were unable to make it to the Clearview presentation, Gerdts-Senger said.

 

The “Pinwheels for Peace” project was started in 2005 by two primary school art teachers in Florida, Gerdts-Senger said, and has spread world-wide since then with nearly four million pinwheels created last year.

 

Both World Peace Day and Pinwheels for Peace are sponsored by an organization called Pathways to Peace.