Children's Cloth of Many Colors
Background
From Gerry Eitner
For me, the first moment of the Children’s Cloth of Many Colors happened on September 20, 2000. I was orchestrating the event on Capitol Hill where the Cloth of Many Colors was being shown, on the lawn in front of the Capitol. It was the millennium, and this mile-long peace cloth, the vision of Peace Troubadour James Twyman had just come from its showing at the UN the prior day.
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| Children from Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Taiwan at event held at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. |
We were in the middle of the setup of the program: I was standing there, facing the Capitol, juggling the setup of the speakers in my mind; Jimmy, Congressman Conyers, Linda Grover, myself … Suddenly and softly, I felt a little hand take mine. Before I looked down, I remember thinking, “this feels like a little angel.”
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Brynn Stalvey at Pentagon ceremony, September 22, 2000. |
Perhaps it was. 8 year old Brynn Stalvey, whom I had never met, was to play a significant part in the coming events. On that day, I met her mother Linda, and her godmother Dawn Ferguson, who came to Washington from Hawaii knowing that they were to be a part of our Pentagon event two days later.
I tell people that at that time I was “beating people off with a stick” who wanted to be a part of our Pentagon event. There were only 75 seats in the Secretary of Army’s conference room, where we would be holding our ceremony to dedicate a peace pole for the Pentagon chapel. The seats were all taken; people were on the waiting list. But I know that for some reason, this child and the two women needed to be there.
The feeling was correct. Brynn announced at that Pentagon peace ceremony that she wanted there to be a new version of the Cloth of Many Colors – one made only by children. It would contain the children’s’ visions and pictures of peace – and perhaps most importantly, their feelings of what “peace on earth” would be like for them.
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| Bonnie Brae presentation to school board of Fairfax County, VA. |
She offered to have her third grade at Bonnie Brae Elementary School in Fairfax, VA start the quilt. And so they did, the following month. Eight sections from that school were made, being presented to the Fairfax County School Board the following March. The school board loved the project so much that they did a short documentary on it. Other major TV network covered the children’s wishes and thoughts for peace. We've had many media articles since that time on the program.
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| Bonnie Brae children and a grandmother work on the CMCC. |
A delegation from Japan came to visit the children: bringing a section from their children, in time for the Cherry Blossom parade. They brought a peace pole for the school and gifts for the American children. Out peacemaker friend Hagit Ra’anan came to visit from Israel, bringing sections from Israeli and Palestinian children. The Bonnie Brae children wrote to both the Palestinian and the Japanese children, incorporating elements from geography, civics, math, penmanship and other aspects into their curricula.
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| Children from Fredericksburg, VA show sections of their quilt. |
Since that time, the program has spread. The quilt is about 1/3 mile long. Thousands of children, from 23 countries and 21 states, have participated. On occasion, whole schools have contributed sections. Children from camps, scouts, Boys and Girls clubs, embassies, neighborhoods, orphanages have participated … all kinds of children. And whatever country they came from, whatever situation they were in, their pictures all had similarities – little smiling faces, holding balloons. Birds, nature, shining suns.
Perhaps most importantly, a kind of magic – with little miracles, happens around the Cloth. The feelings of sweetness, purity, innocence, fun – all of these things sort of spill out from it, wherever it goes. The adults start feeling this, and something within them opens up. Often, they begin feeling like children again.
We noticed at one diplomatic event that when the children were sitting on the floor, drawing their pictures, their parents sat down beside them to join them – again, it didn’t matter whether their countries were at odds with each other. Not only were the pictures the same, but “where the children go, the adults followed” …. It went beyond words: to the heart. Barriers fell.
The entire Children’s Cloth of Many Colors has now been shown twice on Capitol Hill, (Sept. 11, 2002 and April 17, 2004) and once at Chautauqua Institution, (July 4, 2004). It’s a big undertaking to show it all. We’ve shown parts of it at the United Nations International Conference on Children and the Environment, in July 2004, where the Communities of Peace program was represented. It’s been partially shown at the State Department on Earth Day 2004, and a section presented to Mrs. Kofi Annan on September 13, 2001, for the Interfaith Blessing of the Work of the UN (it was particularly needed, two days after September 11th).
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| First Peace Forum held in Washington, DC, October, 2001. |
The initial section from Bonnie Brae hangs on Capitol Hill, presented by Brynn to Congressman Dennis Kucinich the morning that the Department of Peace resolution was first initiated. Sections surrounded the Peace Forums that we hosted in Washington DC during the year between 9/11/01 and 9/2002. Everyone could feel the love of the children coming from the sections; it created a sweet softness in the room.
The children would like to see the quilt go on tour. We would, too.
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