HOLMES BEACH – Anna Maria Elementary (AME) School teachers, staff and students are preparing for the 17th Annual Peace Day celebration, on Friday, Sept. 21, starting at 9 a.m. in front of the school.
The celebration serves as a lesson for students that violence is not the way to solve disagreements.
AME Guidance Counselor Susan Tabicman said this year’s celebration involves pinwheels and students’ thoughts on what peace looks like and means to them. The theme is “The Right to Peace,” according to Tabicman.
The event will begin with an introduction by AME Principal Jackie Featherston and Rotary Club of AMI Past President Judy Rup. Fourth- and fifth-graders will present the colors while the Star-Spangled Banner plays. The Manatee High School Drumline will perform as students plant the Peace Flags around the Peace Pole.
Select students will read poetry and essays on peace, and it concludes with everyone singing a song of peace.
Peace Day began after then-AME Guidance Counselor Cindi Harrison realized two new students had moved here from a school in New York near the Twin Towers that were destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Rotary Club of Anna Maria Island provided AME with the Peace Pole in March 2002 and the teachers decided to use it as a part of the celebration.
