The Sprouts of Hope — Peace Doves and Songs

Sprouts Celebrate Day of Peace

By Eliza

In late September, the Sprouts of Hope travelled by bus to Providence, Rhode Island to spend a day at the nearby Roger Williams Park Zoo. There we celebrated the international day of peace, as we'd done last year with Roots & Shoots in Boston.

Throughout the day, we worked with Roots & Shoots members from other communities to do various peace-related activities with kids who came to the zoo.

At one table, we helped kids make mini peace doves. It felt great to promote peace and tell so many people about Roots & Shoots.

In the afternoon's peace parade, we held up a giant peace dove as Roots & Shoots members and friends marched together around the zoo, singing about peace. A lot of the kids waved the mini peace doves they’d made. It was so much fun!

We also were able to get a tour of the zoo from Denali, a Roots & Shoots member who knows this zoo quite well. It was awesome to see all the animals and walk around the zoo. Overall, the day of peace celebration was a great experience and we can’t wait for next year.

Sprouts of Hope: Celebrating Peace and Chocolate

Celebrating a Day of Peace

By Eliza

On a Sunday in late September, the Sprouts attended one of our favorite annual Roots & Shoots events: The Roots & Shoots International Day of Peace Celebration! This Day of Peace is a great way to meet new people, spread the word about Roots & Shoots, and celebrate peace with other Roots & Shoots members. At the Day of Peace, we ran a table where little kids could create and decorate musical instruments out of recycled materials.

Later in the day, we walked along Jamaica Pond as we carried Peace Doves. The kids who made musical instruments played them as we walked. It was a lot warmer than it was the last time we carried the Peace Doves—in the First Night parade in Boston on New Year's Eve. Here we are sitting with the Peace Dove we are about to carry.

At the table next to us, a woman named Danielle was giving out chocolate samples. She talked with people about fair-trade chocolate and promoted Theo chocolate, the company that she works for. Theo donates proceeds from certain chocolate bars to the Jane Goodall Institute, so this is why Danielle was at the Day of Peace. We thought that it was really cool how Danielle’s job involved chocolate, and she offered us the opportunity to help out at the next event that Theo would have a table at!

We gladly took Danielle up on her offer. In late October at the Boston VegFest, a big annual celebration that more than 10,000 people attend, we helped Danielle hand out chocolate samples, tell people about Theo chocolate, and run the table. It was a very fun experience, and it felt great to help an organization that donates to the Jane Goodall Institute and Roots & Shoots. We hope to continue the partnership that we have with both Theo and Danielle in the future.

The Flying Peace Dove

Sprouts of Hope and Boston's First Night Activities and Parade

By Mia

On New Year’s Eve, some of the Sprouts of Hope participated in First Night activities in Boston with Roots & Shoots - New England. In the afternoon, we volunteered at the Roots & Shoots craft table inside the Hynes Auditorium, where a lot of First Night events happen for families during the day. There we helped kids make Peace Doves and write or draw cards with messages of peace for children in Baghdad, Iraq and Nairobi, Kenya. We also cut out the two sides of each Peace Dove after the kids colored them and a paper olive branch and then we assembled the doves on wooden sticks. All the cutting was a little tiring, but it was fun seeing how happy the kids were with their finished Peace Doves or “birds on a stick,” as somebody called them.

You can watch a video of us and the kids making Peace Doves by clicking here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz9K_69U7gc

What we did in the afternoon led up to what we were hoping to do in the big annual First Night parade that Roots & Shoots was going to be a part of. In the parade, we’d carry two giant Peace Doves that others Roots & Shoots kids had helped to make. But with lots of snow and gusty winds and a really cold temperature, we weren’t sure there would be a parade. By late afternoon, the decision was made to go ahead with the parade, and so we put on the layers of clothing we’d brought and got ready to head outside.

We had a banner with the words “Roots & Shoots” and the two big Peace Doves with wings that normally would flap in the wind. I was very excited as we stood getting ready to walk in the parade that would take us up Boylston Street to the Boston Common. A Procession Marshal put Roots & Shoots - New England between a marching band, playing songs like Yankee Doodle real loudly, and kids and grown-ups in an open air circus who were dressed in crazy costumes. Though it was freezing, really cold, and snowing, we could see lots of people looking down from windows of the Hynes Auditorium and waving to us, and ahead of us the streets were lined with people dancing, cheering and blowing horns.

We started marching and the doves looked great blowing in the wind with our banner in front of them. But pretty soon I looked next to me and saw the dove head flying in the wind without the body. We paused to try to put it back on, but the wind was just too strong.

If you want to watch the Peace Dove's head fly off and follow us as we continue marching in the parade, you can watch us on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI_rF5lRuiw

By the time we’d walked a few blocks, the wind had broken both doves and all we had left was the Roots & Shoots banner and the poles and sheets used to make the doves.

And we had the wire basket shaped like a dove’s head that had once been its face. Kaya carried all of this for the rest of the parade. This was all that was left of the doves. But we marched on, holding on to our banner that also blew in the wind. And we had lots of fun anyway. It was a great New Years Eve!