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Students Plant Pinwheels For Peace

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

From left: Kindergartners Kenlee Wall, 6, and Caitlin Rose, 5, plant their pinwheels into the ground in front of Avon Elementary School on Monday in celebration of International Day of Peace (Sept. 21) in Sebring.

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By MARC VALERO

Highlands Today

Published: September 23, 2008

AVON PARK - http://highlandstoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/inde...> Photos available for purchase

Eight hundred pinwheels, including 600 made by Avon Elementary school students, are putting a positive spin on the worldwide children's peace effort.

The students "planted" the pinwheels in front of the school building early Monday morning.

Fourth-grader Matthew Suttermeister created a special T-shirt to go with the event. Using stickers to block out a pattern, he splattered fabric paint on a white shirt to make a randomly colorful peace symbol.

Pinwheels for Peace was scheduled to coincide with Sunday's United Nations' International Day of Peace, but many schools observed it on Monday when school was in session.

Avon Elementary Principal Pam Burnham said the students did a fantastic job in art class creating their pinwheels.

"It was a school wide effort that might be called synergizing," she said. At Avon Elementary, celebrate peace means, "we work together each day to get along and understand each other."

The students previously practiced singing the Pinwheels for Peace theme song - "Love Each Other."

Avon Elementary music teacher Wendy Garcia said the song talks about the need for change starting today and it starts with the students themselves.

Memorial Elementary School also participated in the project.

The Pinwheels for Peace project started in 2005 by two art teachers, Ann Ayers and Ellen McMillian, who teach at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, Fl.

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