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Ipswich High School Interact is about to complete their Peace Project.  It consists of two parts, peace bracelets and peace poles that will be erected around town this Spring.  Ipswich Interact Advisor, Keith Harris, said the idea grew from a club project to create peace bracelets for the 2013 World Peace Dinner.   Sales of these bracelets allowed the club to embrace the larger peace pole project.  A peace pole is a hand crafted, four-sided pole in the shape of a fence post, about eight feet tall and with the message, "May Peace Prevail on Earth”, inscribed in several languages.  As international signs for peace with more than 200,000 already placed in 180 countries, peace poles serve as a reminder that we are part of a much larger global community.

Libby Cornacchio, one of the student leaders of the Interact club, stated that “I learned what peace means, and I see it applied daily.  It’s not the absence of war, but a project that gave us the opportunity to find out what peace means to others.”  She added that the poles will be placed outside of the schools because they wanted students to be able to come to a safe environment every day.

Club President, Mara Tzizik, commented that “due to recent events around the world, we wanted to have a peaceful and safe place, and we had to come up with an action plan.  Late in April or early May, we will place the poles in the ground and have a ceremony at each school.”  District Governor, Terri Kidder, and 2013 District Conference Co-Chair and Ipswich member, Joan Arsenault, surprised the Interact Club during their recent presentation to the Ipswich Rotary Club by purchasing 150 bracelets for distribution at the upcoming conference which will celebrate Rotary’s year of “Peace Through Service”.  The Ipswich Interact Club, with over 100 members and whose officers spoke at “Rotary Day at the United Nations” in November, will be featured presenters at the conference.

From Left, DG Terri Kidder, Joan Arsenault, Mara Tzizik, Bonnie Bradley, and Libby Cornacchio