Friday, October 10, 2008

Create 'Planetary Peace' mural

---

By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Children in Ladahk, India, created peace poems and artwork on fabric that was then sewed into a patchwork quilt. The quilt is hanging at the Pioneer Montessori School in Ketchum and will be circulated throughout the valley’s schools. Photo courtesy by Nicole Riley (Poems for Peace)

Wood River Valley students in the sixth through eighth grades are invited to spend a free weekend creating a Planetary Peace mural at the Environmental Resource Center, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 18 and 19. Participants should sign up soon as space is limited.

Co-hosted by Poems for Peace, the mural will be designed and executed as an on-site mural to express the complex global issues. Launched last spring by Hailey resident Lauri Bunting, Poems for Peace seeks to connect children around the globe through poems and art, regardless of their racial, religious, socioeconomic, physical and intellectual differences.

The aim is to bring a diverse group of children together to work toward a common goal of planetary peace.

Joe Castle, a Bellevue-based sculptor and substitute art teacher in the local schools, will facilitate creation of the mural.

"We want to establish a place where the kids can creatively come up with ideas about how being environmentally conscious can play a role in being peacemakers around the world," Castle said.

• buy viagra
• viagra
• acheter viagra

ERC Education Coordinator Lisa Huttinger will lead informal environmental discussions.

"We want to engage the kids and find out where their interests lie," Bunting said.

As well, Matt Gershater of Mountain Adventure Tours will provide transportation from the South Valley.

The Planetary Peace Mural Project is free of charge. For lunch, McClain's Pizzeria will provide pizza on Saturday and KB's will provide burritos on Sunday.

For full information, to register and for bus pick-up location, call Lisa Horton at the ERC at 726-4333. For more information about Poems for Peace and the ERC, visit poemsforpeace.org and ercsv.org.