Wednesday, September 21, 2011 4:20 pm

Sitting in front of hundreds of pinwheels they helped to make and plant – Christian Garcia, Hannah Freeman, Zack Ivie, Ashley Ruth, Kevin Reed and Kayla Blackburn.

Imagine … “Whirled Peace” September 21, 2011. In today’s world, peace needs to become more than just a word.

On Wednesday, the students of Cannon County took part in an International art and literacy project Pinwheels for Peace by “planting” pinwheels with messages of peace under the large tree in front of the school board building on Main St.

Pinwheels for Peace is an art installation project started in 2005 by two Art teachers, Ann Ayers and Ellen McMillan, of Coconut Creek, Florida, as a way for students to express their feelings about what’s going on in the world and in their lives.

Last year, over 3.5 million pinwheels were spinning in over 3,500 locations.  

Locally this year, the art club students at Cannon Co. High School coordinated the Pinwheels for Peace project. High School students Ashley Ruth, Savannah Bailey, Donna Fraizer, Hannah Freeman, Kayla Blackburn, Jason Garcia, Cruz Ray, and Tristin Knight went to Woodland elementary to help art teacher Darlene Wetzel and her students create hundreds of pinwheels.

Art teachers Wilma Arbaugh, Kelly Herbert, and Candice Abdul also contributed, creating another hundreds of pinwheels independently in their classes & contributed to the instillation project.

This project is non-political – peace doesn’t necessarily have to be associated with the conflict of war, it can be related to violence/intolerance in our daily lives, to peace of mind. To each of us, peace can take on a different meaning, but, in the end, it all comes down to a simple definition: “a state of calm and serenity, with no anxiety, the absence of violence, freedom from conflict or disagreement among people or groups of people.”

Students in our county created pinwheels - pinwheels of all shapes and sizes. As part of the creation process, the many students wrote their thoughts and wishes on the inside and on the outside, decorated their pinwheels.

On Tuesday, the evening before the International Day of Peace, the volunteers seen above "planted" the pinwheels in front of the school board as a public art exhibit/installation.

We all hope you saw and enjoyed the pinwheels – rain or shine, we hope the pinwheels will spread thoughts and feelings about peace throughout the county, country and the world! For more information, go to http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com.