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War intrudes on Radiant Peace's first open house
By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer
As bombs began falling on Iraq last week, a former teacher was sorting through artwork and essays children had created as tributes to peace. Ann Healy, executive director of the Radiant Peace Division, had chosen last weekend as the nonprofit educational organization's first open house to coincide with the fifth International Day of Radiant Peace on March 22. "It was kind of uncanny," she said Tuesday. "We had been preparing for months for this display. I think all of us who were volunteering were very touched that we could be doing something that was so appropriate." Despite a steady rain, about two dozen people attended the open house at 5601 Central Ave., which doubled as a preview for a museum dedicated to children's artwork Healy hopes to open by 2005. Visitors spent hours reading essays and studying the artwork children have entered over the past 12 years in the Peace Education Awards, an annual contest sponsored by the Radiant Peace Division to increase peace awareness and its importance in children's lives. They inspected a peace quilt created by children at Eisenhower Elementary School in Clearwater and marveled at miniature "peace chairs" crafted by students at Spring Valley Elementary School in Palm Harbor. They pored over peace quotations contributed by a sixth-grade class in Alabama and watched a video prepared by students at Pinellas Central Elementary School in Pinellas Park. Healy spent a lot of her time explaining the concept of radiant peace and why it seems to come so naturally to children. "There is a peace that's the opposite of war, and there is also what we call radiant peace, the peace that's in our hearts," she said. "Children know that. When you come in and read these quotes about peace and you look at the work they've done, you can see they know what real peace is and where to find it. They know it's in their hearts." The Radiant Peace Division was created as a nonprofit educational organization in 1980 to carry out what Healy calls "radiant peace projects." The largest project, the peace education awards, invites children across the country to write an essay or create a piece of artwork based on a peace theme, such as "My Commitment to World Peace" or "What Peace Means to Me." The organization also promotes the annual International Day of Radiant Peace in the United States, Great Britain, Australia and South America. Commemorative events include peace walks, peace meditations and statewide proclamations. Affirming that the organization supports education rather than activism, Healy said the Radiant Peace Division has nothing to do with politics or religion or nationalities. "Radiant peace can be in everyone's heart, no matter what their circumstances, whether they're going off to the military or if they're going to Wal-Mart," she said. Among Saturday's visitors was a war veteran who heard Healy telling someone that proceeds from the sale of donated items at the back of the museum would go toward the peace education awards. "He said, 'Well, I'm a veteran, and if you're against the war, I don't want to spend my money here,' " Healy said. "Those are always opportunities to talk about radiant peace. I shared with him that we're neither for nor against the war. That's not what our organization is about. We promote an awareness of peace that is in everyone's heart. He actually bought a couple of things. I was amazed." Healy called the open house a "wonderful beginning" on the road toward a permanent venue for artwork created for the Peace Education Awards program. "People were really touched by what they saw, and by the fact that there is so much more we hope one day to be able to display," she said. "We're a tiny organization, but we want so much to continue what we do." To learn more The Radiant Peace Division, 5601 Central Ave., is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 343-8212 to arrange a guided tour. Arrangements can be made for families who would prefer to tour on weekends.
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