The kids all clamored around me and Moobert on the day we visited at Kid’s Club, an afternoon day care center in Morro Bay, California. I’d arranged with Parks and Recreation Director, Amanda Hall for me to come and bring along my large stuffed animal cow I call Moobert to tell the story of International Peace Day to children ages five to eight. With the United Nations International Peace Day theme “End Racism-Build Peace” in mind I let Moobert tell how cows come in different colors and are from different countries and how this is the same with people. “Cows don’t care what color another cow is,” Moobert explained, “we just like to hang out together in the fields and eat grass.”

I was surprised and thrilled to see the diversity in this group of kids. Morro Bay, as well as much of this area of the Central Coast of California, is populated mostly by white people. For many years there were no Black children attending our schools. Things have changed and it was great to see Kid’s Club with children from different racial communities.

While Moobert and I told the story of how the United Nations International Peace Day came about, the kids’ hands shot up with many questions. They wanted to know about the Peace Bell, having a bit of a hard time distinguishing it from the Liberty Bell, and they surprised me by identifying the peace sign that Yes We Can Peacebuilders uses in its logo as “the Hippie sign.” We talked about racial differences and how it is important for everyone to feel loved and accepted in our community and at school.

Using some special drawings from a peace coloring book for kids, the group of 42 children settled down at tables to color the drawings that contained their popular Hippie sign along with peace doves and rainbows and the words “World Day of Peace,” “Together,” and “Peace Day.” Introducing the word nonviolence was another important part of the time with the Kid’s Club and they offered many thoughts about types of violence, bullying being the primary one. We spoke about how to deal with that problem in a peaceful, nonviolent manner.

Even kids this young are aware of what is going on in the world. They brought up the war in Ukraine and I did my best to explain that without increasing anymore fear than might already exist for them.

These kids were thrilled to be asked to be part of a peace celebration. It made me realize how much we might have been excluding children in this age group from projects that help them cope with the violence they know exists but feel helpless about.

A few days later I made my way 30 miles north to the City of Paso Robles and the Paso Robles Youth Arts Center. Here for two days and four sessions, I met with up to 48 children from the ages of 5 through 17 to tell them the story of International Peace Day and ask them to create art drawings illustrating their ideas of peace and nonviolence. For the youngest kids Moobert and I did our routine and invited them to ask questions and then color line drawings. These youngest kids are already budding artists and many of them drew their own images based on the different peace symbols in the line drawings. They created colorful bookmarks they will use as gifts or to mark places in the books they are reading.

Once again, the subject of bullying came up and it was good to try and help these youngsters cope with these incidents. Making sure they knew to tell their teachers and their parents if they were accosted by a classmate was first and foremost. Then I explained how often a person bullies another because of difficult things that are going on their lives and that we might need to be understanding and forgiving. The art teacher for these classes told me afterward that topics and discussions like this had never occurred before bringing the topic of peace and nonviolence to the class.

On the second day I met with youth ages 11 to 17 and found much more subdued groups. However, the artistry and awareness of present-day issues was obvious in their creations. It was noticeable to me in their artwork that some kids naturally bring a positive attitude to nonviolence and others grapple with the dark side of violence. Bringing the concepts of positive peacebuilding and how nonviolence can bring about a peaceful world was most gratifying for me and my crew of helpers. Young people today need us to help them through life’s difficulties in the most positive way we can. When asked why I chose to do programs with youth on this International Peace Day, I answered with what I am hearing more and more from my associates working in the field of nonviolence - we do it for the kiddos!

Ruth Ann Angus is the director of Yes We Can Peacebuilders in Morro Bay, California and a founder of Nonviolent Morro Bay, part of Pace e Bene’s Nonviolent Cities Project. The composite photo is of the 42 children from Kid's Club of the Morro Bay Parks and Recreation Department and the other group photo is of very young kids from the Children’s Center in Morro Bay gathered around the Peace Pole at the United Methodist Church. She is depicted with her helper "Moobert the Peace Cow" at the Paso Robles Youth Arts Center. The drawing of Moobert is by Noah who is peeking out at the camera on the right side of the photo.