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Peace Camp
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Camp usually means enjoying the outdoors and meeting new friends. But there’s one camp with a special focus—where kids learn about peace and getting along. And it all starts at a place where violence took a heavy toll. Kim Riemland (reem land) reports. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Oklahoma City, Okla.)
Most of these kids weren’t born when the federal building in Oklahoma
City was destroyed by a bomb.
Tour guide: “Sixteen buildings in the area were destroyed.”
Conna Wilkinson, Peace Challenge Camp director: “We talk with them about
the process by which violence escalates. The Murrah building bombing is
a good illustration of that on a pretty big scale.”
Camper: “It’s just wrong. All innocent people being
killed.”
A visit to the Oklahoma City National Memorial is the first stop for a
week-long peace challenge camp for fifth- and sixth-graders.
Conna Wilkinson, Peace Challenge Camp Director: “What kind of a world
would you like to see?”
The camp is now in its third year, sponsored by the United Methodist
Church’s Skyline Urban Ministry.
Conna Wilkinson, Peace Challenge Camp Director: “We’ve had kids that
have come through here and say this is the first time they’ve ever spent
five days without getting in a fight or getting in trouble.”
Art is a big part of the camp, helping kids practice peace.
Jo Anne Alexander, Artist-in-Residence: “Because when you’re creating,
then you’re not about the business of destroying.”
Campers chant: “Who are we? We are peacemakers.”
The campers also take a walk through portals, symbolizing how they can
move from one way of looking at things to another.
Alexis Carr, 11-Year-Old Camper: “It really doesn’t benefit for anybody
to harbor anger.”
Abby Treadway, 10-Year-Old Camper: “Why would you blow up a building
just because you didn’t like what they thought?”
(Singing) “Ain’t gonna study war no more.”
And peace challenge camp is a place where kids can experience, at least
for a week, what life would be like without conflict.
Patricia Webb, Artist-in-Residence: “We have to do something different.
What we’re doing in the world is not working very well. They can have
their part in creating peace.”
TAG:
Skyline Urban Ministry is a program of the Oklahoma Central Conference
of the United Methodist Church. Skyline has other programs to help kids,
as well. Hundreds of children every year pick out free clothes for
back-to-school.
For more information on the peace camp and other activities for youth,
visit
http://www.skylineurbanministry.org or
call 405-236-5212.