A Peace Garden Blossoms in Boyne City

May 21, 2003

The creation of a Peace Garden in Boyne City is a story about healing the earth, welcoming nature back, and much more.
Now entering its fourth growing season, what was once a dusty, barren environment now provides a habitat for wildlife, green-growing things, and the sounds, sights, smells and colors of nature for children to play and learn and join with the wonders of the natural world. This former biological wasteland is now a living laboratory and outside classroom for real-life, hands-on-learning across the curriculum.
Here, children learn to respect and care for the the soil, water, air, plants, worms, insects, animals and people -- essential building blocks of a healthy, humane civil society. Such is the beginning of our Peace Garden & Habitat Site located on the Boyne City Elementary School playground at 930 Brockway Street.
In the spring of 2000, the International Peace Gardens issued a millennium challenge to every school in the world to plant a peace garden, peace grove, or peace tree on school grounds to forward the ideals of respect between humans and the environment and between people and cultures. After witnessing the horrific Columbine school shootings (April 20, 1999) and 11 others from Bethel, Alaska, to Conyers, Georgia during an 18 month period, taking a pro-active approach to teaching respect for life seemed the right thing to do.
Following approval from the school board and administration, and with support of the PTO, we began...
The first step was bringing in truckloads of topsoil and to create berms outlining the habitat site. Since Boyne City was building a new high school at that time, the top- soil came from that site. Parent volunteers sweated for days building a beautiful raised block circle bed (each block was 51 lbs!) with the engineering guidance of volunteer John Hoaglund. The circle bed has a four-foot span of soil inside the curving sides that we plant with flowers each spring; the flowers are in full bloom when the children return in the fall. It provides a wondrous curving trail to walk on, seating for an entire class inside or outside the circle, and a quiet place for sitting or talking.

CREATION
In celebration of Earth Day, 2000, we had an assembly where Tom Sheets, founder of Friends of the Boyne River, and Joe Mitchell, elder of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians spoke to the students about caring for the Earth. Afterwards, the students cleaned the playground and amidst drumming, dancing, blowing bubbles and celebrating, a truckload of rich soil was delivered by police escort, and deposited next to the flower bed on the playground. Using coffee cans and pails,,, each student helped fill our beautiful raised garden bed with the “black gold.“
Next, we brought in loads of organic rabbit manure and mulch (We use organic principles) and the students, using wheelbarrows, pitchforks, shovels and rakes, planted many flowers, plants, shrubs and trees, including the beginning of our Peace Grove.
A Peace Grove is an ancient European tradition of the Celtic, Gallic, and Viking people. Peace groves consisted of 12 trees in an oval. In ancient times, people were required to resolve conflicts by laying aside any weapons (including verbal, physical or emotional) outside the grove. They entered the middle of the grove with a mediator to work out their grievances. No one left until the problem was worked out peacefully. We will use this historical tool to teach conflict resolution techniques. We have six ornamental plum trees planted and are hoping for six more trees to be donated to complete our peace grove. Inside the grove are stumps, railroad ties, tires, disks and a little hill for running, jumping, climbing, stacking, rolling and just plain fun.
Student involvement in the garden is key to its success. Ownership is what matters, and school-wide, student participation in its planting and care makes it their garden. They are protective of it. We also have a Junior Master Gardener‘s program at our school so those children who esp. love gardening can participate on a higher lever.

PLANTING SEEDS
Each spring, we roll wheelbarrows filled with flats of seed-starting mix to each classroom in the elementary school and provide a variety of seeds for them to chose from. All 421 students participate by planting a seed, nurturing it, watching it grow and hardening it off outside. For some children, this is their first experience planting a seed. But this humble and important task is the beginning of environmental awareness. Then, at the end of May, we have “planting day“ where all the students plant their seedlings in the garden.
Teachers use the garden as a living laboratory in many ways: for science and weather experiments and observation... as a quiet and beautiful place to read and lecture... as an ever-changing pallet to stimulate creative writing, poetry and art. And simply, a magical place to sit, talk and reflect.
Every year, our garden becomes more beautiful. This spring, our garden was the recipient of a handmade arbor and bench created by former student, Chuck Leazier, owner of White Cedar Rustics. This beautiful work-of-art is inspired by Chuck‘s love of nature and his passion for wood working.
Every school should have a Peace Garden & Habitat Site. Providing a beautiful, healthy place for creative play and learning how to respect and care for the natural world is critically important. With children shooting children, and escalating environmental deterioration, doesn‘t it make sense to teach “respect“ at the foundation of life? Respect for the Earth, respect for living things, and respect people all go hand-in-hand. It‘s when people become “disconnected“ from nature that they lose their grounding -- and lose their way.
It has been said, “Knowledge without love will not stick, but with love, knowledge is sure to follow.“ We must teach our children to love the Earth and care for living things -- and each other. For it is out of love and caring that hope is born, and the future of life on Earth will grow, bloom and flourish.

For more information, or to make a donation to the garden, please contact playground co-chairs, Virginia Heick, 231-582-3539 vheick@netonecom.net or Sylvia Hyland, 231-582-5362 SunDance@chartermi.net