Peace Essay Contest
Since our highest human vibrations are Love, Joy and Peaceand along with keeping with public interfaith wishes for “Peace on Earth and goodwill towards all” during holiday seasons, the Peace Bells Foundation with the Greater Newburgh Rotary announces a Peace Essay Contest with one winner in 5th grade in schools where we have developed relationships – The Wappingers School District, The Newburgh School District, Poughkeepsie Day School and St. Mary’s Elementary in Fishkill. (possibly this essay contest could be expanded in this, community, county, state etc.).
We will dedicate these 200-300 words essay contest to Mattie Stepanek, a Catholic boy from Maryland with a rare DMM disease. He was a friend of Larry King, Oprah and Jimmy Carter. President Carter wrote the foreword to one of his 7 best sellers “Heart Songs” (as did Dr. Maya Angelou and Jerry Lewis…) – Poems of a Peace Maker – Pres. Carter also gave the eulogy at his funeral, dying at 13. Check out www.mattieonline.com and Wikipedia.
Amazon gift certificate for each winner for $25 and a copy of one of Matte’s “Heart Songs” best sellers.
- For early elementary students a drawing or poem could be done instead.
Some suggested broad themes – topics creating a more peaceful world are as follows:
– If you could create peace between two countries, two street gangs or other enemies that have been at war for years, what would you do, how might you accomplish this task?
– Peace in my life could mean freedom from domestic violence. How does this potentially affect me, my family, or my life in general? How could you help eradicate this?
– Peace in my life could mean freedom from bullying. How would this support me, my friends, classmates, neighbors, and everyone across the United States? What methods could you take to help stop bullying?
– Peace in my life could be freedom from racism. How would this support me, my friends, classmates, neighbors, and everyone across the United States? What things could I do, or steps I could take to begin to stop racism?
– Peace in my life could mean freedom from worry about any illness or disease for me or any member of my family. What are things I or people in our country could do to eradicate diseases and illnesses?
– I could feel more peaceful if my parents worried less about so many things in our lives like us – their children, our schooling, their jobs, and money problems. What could I do to support them and help them stress less and feel more peaceful?
– I could feel more peaceful if I never had to worry about war in our country or worldwide. What are things that our leaders, world leaders, could do to help everyone in this regard?
– I would be more peaceful without worrying about my parents’ safety or the safety of all the members of my family and my friends. What are the various things I could do to help everyone to be safer?
– I could feel more peaceful with less stress, strain and maybe better sleep. How might I accomplish this goal?
Or: any topic you choose to undertake that has to do with peace and the mission of the Peace Bell Foundation that supports the communication of harmony, love, and understanding that collaboration, compassion and mutual respect are the keys to peace and unity.
We encourage schools and organizations to join us and then participate in
choosing the five best efforts in each age group, class, and send them to us.
23 Marcella Blvd. Hopewell Jct., NY 12533
40 + OVERTONES OF PEACE
possibly included several in your essay
•AWARENES – An ongoing fuller discovery of self and a mindful, spacious realization of creations interactions
•CARING – to be concern, have thought or regard.
•COMMITMENT– The firm carrying out of purpose.
•COMPASSION– Sensitivity and the capacity to commiseration for another’s suffering or misfortune
•CONVICTION– How can we expect a righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone who will give himself up undividedly to a righteous caused? Are there still people today who never weary of directing their thinking and all their energy single-heartedly, to one cause? Sophie Scholl
•COURAGE– Strength of mind and will to carry on with audacity and fortitude in spite of challenges danger.
•CREATIVITY– The generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations, to go outside the box
•DEPENDABILITY– Reliable, worthy of reliance or trust.
•DETERMINATION– Firmness of purpose.
•ELOQUENCE– Powerful and effective language. Fluent, persuasive and articulate speech.
•ENTHUSIASM– A feeling of excitement. Exuberance: overflowing with eager enjoyment or approval.
•FAIRNESS– Free from bias or injustice; evenhandedness:
•FAITHFULNESS– Steadfast in affection or allegiance; loyal.
•FORGIVENESS– disposition or willingness to forgive to grant pardon for or remission of (an offense, to cease to feel resentment against:
•FORTITUDE– Strength of mind that enables one to endure adversity with courage.
•GENEROSITY– Giving or ready to give freely, free from meanness or prejudice.
•GENTLENESS– Moderate; mild, quite; not rough or severe.
•GRACIOUSNESS– Elegance and courtesy, in speech or behavior that acknowledges the worth of others
•GRATITUDE– Live your life so that the fear of death can never enter your heart. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light. Give thanks for your life, strength food & joy of living
•HONESTY– Integrity, veracity, and devotion to telling the truth especially when it is difficult.
•HUMILITY– There is three circles in life. Knowing what we know and knowing what we don’t know are small and of somewhat equal size. The third: Not knowing what we don’t know would be enormous!!
•HUMOR– The ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is amusing, comical, incongruous, or absurd.
•INTEGRITY– Moral soundness; Integrity is consistency of values and actions. Unbroken completeness with nothing lacking.
•JOY– A state of happiness, peace and a cause of rejoicing in the delight of one’s life and others.
•JUSTICE– The motive is love of brother, and we are commanded to love our brothers. If religion has so neglected the needs of the poor and the great mass of workers, and permitted them to live in the most horrible destitution while comforting them with the solace of a promise of a life after death when all tears shall be wiped away, then that religion is suspect. Dorothy Day
•KINDNESS– To act with grace and benevolent assistance in service to others.
•LOVE– Constant selfless regard for and dedication to others
•MERCY– Compassion or forbearance especially shown to an offender or to those in distress
•PATIENCE– The quality of waiting for events to unfold in proper time without worry or distress
•RESPECT– Admiration for others. Treating people with due dignity.
•RESPONSIBILITY– Having control over and accountability for appropriate events
•SERVICE– This is the true joy of life: being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of aliments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. Life is no brief candle to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. George Bernard Shaw
•SIMPLICITY– To live simply & sanely, content with only necessary possessions, a healthy mind and body and a willingness to let go of worried and anxieties
•SINCERITY– Free from pretense or deceit in manner or actions.
•SPACIOUSNESS– the capacity for new cosmic awareness in the midst of a graceful peaceful presence
•THANKFULNESS– Warm friendly feelings of gratitude.
•TRUST– Reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
•UNDERSTANDING– The perceptive capacity for knowing and sharing the feelings of another.
Douglas Sturomski
• Rotary Dist. 7210 Peace Chair,
ringinpeace@gmail.com
• Peace Bell Foundation
Founder, 501c3 /CEO
www.peacebellfoundation.org