Back in the fall when I first started my internship at Como Park Lutheran in St. Paul, I met with Paul Erickson, the Assistant to the Bishop for Evangelical Mission from the St. Paul Synod. I asked him for ideas on how to build on partnerships—especially with the school that’s a block down the street from our church. Paul told me that when he served in Wisconsin, one idea was a Peace Award. He told me a little bit about it and I thought—wow, that’s brilliant. So I called up the principal at Chelsea Heights Elementary and pitched an idea.
We would give the Peace Award to two kids in the 6th grade who show tolerance, respect, and inclusiveness towards members of the classroom or visitors to the class, kids that exhibit behavior of helping others regularly and often serves as peace maker when two opposite sides are present. They also generally show high moral character and know the difference between right and wrong. They didn’t have to be Christian—no essay telling us how God influences them. No, just our church lifting up the kids who treated others the right way and saying “thank you” through an award in front of their peers.
One other thing—we’d give the winners a $25 gift card to Target from our church’s trust fund. For a 6th grader, this is like a million dollars.
When I called up the principal again a few weeks ago to see when we could give out the awards and who was getting it, she said that both of the 6th grade teachers had two kids that they wanted to elect. No problem, we could give out four awards instead of two.
In May, the school had an award ceremony in which all the 4th-6th graders and many of the parents showed up. Along with our youth director and senior pastor, the three of us showed up to the school lunch room to present our award. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. How would these kids, these parents, these teachers respond to a church group coming into their school?
The principal announced all of the other awards and finally called us up. She explained the award, the criteria, and the fact that four kids from the 6th grade would receive it. Then she mentioned the part about the Target gift card. There was a collective gasp from all of the kids—they were listening. The four kids names were announced and they climbed up the stage for us to shake their hands to applause from the assembly.
The icing on the cake was when the principal suggested to all of the 4th and 5th graders to look at who was standing in front of them—“this could be you in the years to come.” The response has been very positive and our church will return next year to give the award again.
When I first heard about the idea, it just seemed like a good thing to do—a nice piece of goodwill and a way to solidify a relationship within the community. As I looked at the kids and felt the energy in the lunch room, I realized how important it is to lift up kids who stand up to bullies, don’t mind if they aren’t the most popular if it means they stick up for others, and who don’t always get acknowledged.
But think about this… who usually gets the most attention in schools? The best athletes and musicians, the smartest students, and the class clown. The Peace Award gives attention to the best advocates and tells everyone else it’s cool to stand up for what’s right. I’m proud of these four kids and hope that this gets lifted up more and more in our culture.
This is an invitation for others who are reading this to see if the organizations you are involved with would be interested in supporting this for the schools in your neighborhood. It’s a relatively small investment for something that builds relationships, encourages our youth to treat other better, and promotes peace instead of competition.
Consider it an investment in future bloggers for State of Formation.
Peace Sign image is from http://rhetoriccamel.blogspot.com/2010/10/peace-sign.html