NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A program has just launched in a few local schools. The hope is the idea goes national. It'll take some pretty great kids to help make that happen.
"When me and Olive first met we played with walkie talkies!" said seven-year-old Bellaire, sitting next to nine-year-old Olive.
"Wait. Do you still have the other one?" Olive asked.
"No."
"Aw! I don't know where mine went!"
The girls are today students at Neely's Bend K-8 School, and they're part of this whole big thing. Sounds like something where you'd want to be dressed your best.
"Are these real diamonds?" Olive asked Bellaire, looking at a bracelet.
"No!"
"That'd be funny if they were."
There's a lot to this. It starts with an idea by Mary Frank.
"It's the Peace Partner Project," Frank explained. "Peer group pressure gets in the way of children reaching out and being friends with children who are different."
Through a Metro Arts grant, Frank got three schools involved in the Peace Partner Project.
"Goodlettsville Elementary, Neely's Bend, and Episcopal School of Nashville," Frank listed.
Students of the three schools have become pen pals.
"They write letters back and forth to each other," Frank nodded.
This sounded like a pretty good idea to Neely's Bend K-8 principal Kimberly Bullock.
"Having a connection with people who do not live in the same area, neighborhood with you, to embrace different backgrounds, ethnic diversity, we are all together," Bullock said. "We share a common theme, and that's respect and love."
Right now, the kids have not met their pen pals from other schools in person. That will happen at a peace rally at Shelby Park in May. The peace rally will include a monument to peace. Until then, the kids are reading about famous peacemakers and keeping journals about acts of kindness. A song is being learned that will be performed by the kids of all three schools at the peace rally.
Here's where Olive and Bellaire come in. Frank put them at the center of a documentary about the Peace Partner Project. The girls didn't actually know each other before this journey started. It made the two of them friends.
"Yup. It did!" Bellaire confirmed.
Frank's hope is the documentary can showcase the Peace Partner Project idea to schools across the country.
"We want people to see Tennessee is really reaching out and trying to make a difference," Frank said. "We are seeing this for every third grade in the nation to be able to rally for peace. We're hoping they'll be friends forever. Peace can be a reality."
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
Austin Pollack brings us an update on a remarkable young man facing great odds, and his family has one simple request: pray for Cole. I believe in the power of prayer and hope you'll join me in lifting up Cole and his family.
- Carrie Sharp
