Miles with smiles for peace

For the last two years the tradition of observing International Day of Peace and Non-Violence has become a community-wide effort. Wearing yellow and their best walking shoes, students, parents, Freeport Public Schools faculty and staff along with neighbors met at Archer Street School on Sept. 16. Lining up in front of the school, the group prepared to ascend their mile-long walk through Smith and Rose streets, S. Bayview and South Long Beach avenues.

Navy ROTC cadets of Freeport High School excitedly shouted their military cadences while contagiously motivating other walkers to cheer along with them. Freeport High School freshmen, Camille Cabrera, 14 Jacqueline Picao, 14 and Arliana Lee, 14 walked together for the experience of promoting peace among their classmates.

“We thought his would be fun. I’d been to one of these [walks], but not for supporting my school [Freeport High School]. So I thought it would be nice to be with and get the community together,” Picao said.

Throughout the walk, incessant chatter and contagious laughter were heard as the peace walkers made their way through the streets neighboring the elementary school. Greeting students and parents during the walk, Dr. Kishore Kunchum, superintendent of Freeport Public Schools walked alongside Anthony Miller, vice-president of the Board of Education.

The fall peace walk was also an opportunity to fundraise for students and teachers in Freeport, Texas and Freeport, Fla., who were impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Recalling the rough time Freeport schools had after Superstorm Sandy, Kunchum says through the peace walk and fundraiser they are able to pay back the favor, Freeport, Maine did for the school by helping other Freeporters in other zip codes outside of their own.

“We really promote peace and harmony within ourselves, our community and across the globe,” Kunchum said. “With the times we are living in right now and particularly our country has changed in the last nine months it’s really so important to have peace especially in our own community.”