The primary prevention committee went out and spread peace at the Largo Touch a truck!!!
It started with a pretty simple idea:
Get kids to draw and color what they think peace is. Then ask them to let us display it for all to see, so that everyone sees what peace really looks like.
So we started with this:
We asked the City of Largo, FL USA to allow us to have a table at an event called Touch a Truck. This is an event where tons of people, and especially kids, come to the park and get to get in and explore tons of awesome vehicles like Firetrucks, Ambulance, Sky crane, Semi truck, Dumptruck, Garbage Truck, City bus, there was even a Helicopter that flew in.
We asked kids and adults if they wanted to color what their peaceful place looked like. A few people came over, and colored a picture, and promptly took it with them. We asked each person if they’d like to keep it or let us display it for everyone to see.
Our wall of peace started slow:
Then it began to build and more and more people started to show up. It was amazing!!!
As the kids drew, we asked them what peace looked like to them. They gave us amazingly awesome answers:
“when I’m happy”
“when there’s no hitting”
“when everyone is getting along.”
“when we are all smiling”
“when I like me”
As we asked them, we also asked the parents and they gave great answers as well.
“In the bathtub”
“relaxing on my front porch”
“when multiple generations and nationalities get together.”
There was one moment that just amazed me. There were 6 languages Russian, Arabic, Czech, Albanian, Spanish, and English all being spoken at the same time. All of the people were laughing, drawing, helping their children, and helping eachother.
Moms and dads both were helping their children. The kids were showing parents who really didn’t want to be there, that they had displayed their art on this “awesome” peace wall. They showed their relatives, their friends, and everyone they could. That was their stuff and they were helping create peace.
Everyone at the booth: Frieda, Shelba, Dawna, Prisscila, Chad, MJ, E.V, Jacob all helped everyone realize what peace was for them. We talked to them about what a healthy relationship looked like. We talked to the adults and the kids about how to create peace and nonviolence in our homes, our lives, and in our community.
More and more kids and adults gave us their pictures. They put feathers on them, they colored with markers and crayons, the glitter ran out, the stickers ran out, and there was more joy and happiness than many people have ever felt in their life.
This is what the primary prevention committee does. We come together to prevent violence, promote peace and healthy relationships, and bring that message to our community.
In the end, over 200 people were at our table talking about, seeing, feeling, and experiencing what true peace really is.
This does not include the 100’s of people that walked by the booth, saw the pictures and were compelled to comment about how wonderful this is! With this event we have affected hundreds of people!
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