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Local kids give peace a chance

Camp’s funding cut, but over 125 still volunteer to help

Linda Howell helps kids fish for books Thursday, June 25 during Peace Camp at Lagonda Elementary School. Staff photo by Marshall Gorby

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By Robert Pierce, Staff Writer 7:03 PM Friday, June 26, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Peace Center is wrapping up its 23rd annual Peace Camp, but administrators worry how many more years the camp will last with continued funding loss.

“Our funding has been cut drastically, our biggest grant wasn’t just cut, it’s gone,” Ramona Henry, board member for the center, said. “But we are going to do all we can, it’s too valuable for the children.”

Henry said children from the entire county attend the camp, including more than 220 this year. They learn strategies for non-violent conflict resolution and how to be good citizens of the world, she said. The children also learn to value the Earth and how their actions effect the environment. Through making crafts and singing songs they learn the importance of common humanity, Henry said. Even the physical education games focus on cooperation and not competition.

Although peace is the week long theme, Thursday’s focus was on bullying and caring about other people’s feelings, Angie Larsen, who teaches third and fourth graders, said.

“We have mediators put on different masks with different expressions, and then have the kids guess what they are feeling,” she said. “ Then we have them talk about their feelings.”

Henry said the recession is a large stressor on children, this year she is noticing many children come to camp hungry. And this comes at the worst time, she said.

“This next year is going to be our leanest year,” she said. “We may not be able to serve 220 kids next year for free.”

Over 125 volunteers show up to help the cause, many of them are former peace campers. Isaiah Griffith, an eighth grader at South Vienna, is now a teen mediator after attending the camp first through sixth grade.

“I thought it would be fun to help people,” he said. He helps teachers prepare their classes and pass out papers.

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