2011 Peace Essay Contest
Primary School Winning Entries
1st Place:
The NoBully Peace Prize
Nathan McGhee, Kersey Creek Elementary School, gr. 2
For years there has been the Nobel Peace Prize. It is one of the awards established by Swedish inventor Alfred B. Nobel in 1895. The recipient is someone who has done the most outstanding job at promoting peace in the world, and is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
If there was a Nobel Peace Prize for kids, it could be the "NoBully Peace Prize." Bullying is being mean to someone and making them feel scared or threatened. It can hurt others in different ways. It can make people sad, mad, or hurt. It can hurt feelings or a person's body. If someone was picking on me or my friends I would be embarrassed or scared. A bully doesn't have many friends, and he's just trying to impress people. He doesn't know that no one will want to be his friend if he makes people feel scared. Real friends wouldn't go around bullying people.
Teachers and principals could nominate a student who has done a great job of preventing bullying at their school that year. For example, a student starts a club at his or her school focused on taking a stand or speaking out against bullying and sharing ways students have either helped stop bullies or have been bullied. The goal of the club is to end bullying and make friends with those who have been bullied. The head of the club would be a teacher who would have been voted for by students. The student who started the club could win the Prize. Another example would be making bully education part of Guidance Education. Each week or so students could do skits and the Counselor picks a known bully to play the role of a bullied student. Hopefully, the experience would make them think about what they do, how it feels and want to stop. The bully who changed the most could be the winner of the Prize.
The winners of the NoBully Peace Prize get their name on a plaque that can be displayed in their school. Each school would have an assembly where that year's NoBully Peace Prize winner is recognized, and students pledge not to bully their classmates. They get to make a speech and read it on the local news telling people how they earned the prize. They can share what bullying looks like and how you should tell the bully to stop, and then you walk away with the bullied person. For the next school year, the winner from the school gets to meet the winners from the other schools to share ideas. They would get together at a monthly pizza or ice cream party after school.
If kids worked to win the NoBully Peace Prize, we could try to start a chain reaction to end bullying for good.
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2nd Place:
Peace For Peeps
Kendall Dudley, O.B. Gates ES, gr. 1
I would win the Youth Peace Prize by starting a program called Peace For Peeps in all elementary schools in Virginia. Since children learn best when they are young and they spend six hours a day at school, this program would be perfect at school.
Peace For Peeps would last the whole school year and would be good for all grades. The program would teach kids how to argue nicely without hitting, yelling and hurting each other's feelings. Guidance counselors would help with this part of the program.
Peace For Peeps would teach kids about different cultures and that would help the students learn how to respect and love each other. Volunteers in the community would come in and share some facts about their country such as clothing, food and beliefs.
The last part of Peace For Peeps would allow students to volunteer both at school (helping students with special needs) and during the weekend helping at homeless shelters and nursing homes.
If students in Virginia could learn how to disagree nicely, learn about other cultures and spend time helping others, then the world would have more peace and Kendall Dudley would be the winner of the Nobel Youth Peace Prize.
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3rd Place:
Equal Opportunities for Homeless Children
Alexander Scott, O. B. Gates ES, gr. 2
I am Alex Scott and I want equal rights for homeless children and the poor people of America. Number one, I want homeless people to have the right to go to school and play sports.
I have been lucky because my parents let me have the best opportunities. But the homeless don't have all those good, cool opportunities. So if you're not poor you should not be spoiled and be as happy as you can because some kids have nothing and they are just happy that they are living and have a life.
Also not every kid has a home so you should be happy that you have a good home because homeless people might live in the woods or on a street. I know I am happy to just have a home and food.
I'm so glad I have nutritious food because homeless people might have no food or just not nutritious food. I would like restaurants to give all extra or unused food to the homeless every single night for free.
Homeless people will probably think that the rule that I just said is the best but I have more. My next one is I wish homeless would have good shelters so people who build could build free houses for the poor homeless to live in.
Some homeless people might think that one is the best, but it's your decision so pick what you feel like. Also, I want homeless to have good warm clothes and jackets to stay warm so the people who make clothes and jackets will have to give free clothes and jackets.
The last one was a good one, but here is a good one too. I wish to have the people that make gloves, boots and hats to give all the leftovers to the homeless. This is also including scarves and shoes.
That one is my favorite, but I see another great one coming. I wish for all haircut places to make a free appointment for a nice haircut or something else to do with a hair salon. They can do anything as a haircut.
Also, when they go to food or an accessories store if they don't have all the money they will make a jar to donate money to the homeless. If they don't have enough money in the donation jar the cashier will pay the money they don't have.
I also wish that homeless people will not fight because they might be fighting about needing a home because almost everybody has a home, except them.
If that happens I wish for them to stop fighting and just be nice to each other because it's not fair for the homeless.
In other words homeless need peace in the United States of America too.
So I, Alex Scott wish for the homeless to have equal rights. That is all I'm wishing for so I hope this helps.
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Honorable Mention:
"Collecting Books for Peace"
Kate Farmer, St. Michael's Episcopal, gr.3
To achieve that honorary peace prize, I would start a tremendous nationwide search for any worn or used books. I would start small, like my tiny, peaceful neighborhood. Then I would go bigger, like my marvelous church. Soon after my wonderful school, and so on until the whole wide state is informed all the way up to the border. How on Earth would I accomplish this? Well, don't judge a person by their age! I would work from dawn to daybreak, making adds, posters, and anything to let V.A know. The posters and ads would say: Books Wanted! For Helpless Children in Need! Send to 212 Queen Charlotte Road, Richmond V.A. It would take a very long, long, time, but I would finally get enough.
About two hundred books or maybe, even more. I would be head over heels when that moment came. Then the best part of all, giving them away! I would happily send them away to children who hardly have any at all. I would put them in plastic Martins bags, with five books per bag. And finally, I would send them away to those who need them dearly. I know inside, I can make a difference. After all, what is more peaceful than a book?
Afghanistan Needs Us
Makyla Grant, Mary Munford ES, gr. 3
We learned about Afghanistan in school. We learned that some people in Afghanistan are poor because they do not have freshe water to drink, cook, bathe or fish. Some people have no electricity. There is also a war in Afghanistan. I would like to stop the war. I would talk to the leader of Afghanistan and the leader of the people who are fighting and tell them to meet me in a tent. I would first introduce myself and give them some Girl Scout Thin Mints and Samoa cookies. Everybody likes Girl Scout cookies! Then while we are eating cookeisI will tell them that instead of physically fighting, talk it out.
Some people might get hurt through physical fighting and we might need these people to help us grow food crops and help make electricity. I would put up posters and signs for construction workers to help build houses and power plants. I would also ask my grandfather who builds houses to help too. I would ask some electric company workers to bring wires to hook up electricity to light bulbs and sockets in the houses that the construction workers build I will also ask scientists for some water cleaning pills. I will ask the construction workers to put in pipes that will pull the water to the houses. If we all work together Afghanistan will have a lot of peace.
Bullying
Cabot J. Stone, Clover Hill ES, gr. 1
If I could make a change in the world, I would help a bully become a better person.
Bullies like to hurt people's feelings, like to be mean, and punch, kick and sometimes hit children.
I would help a bully be a better person by telling them that they hurt children that don't deserve to be hurt. I would talk to them about their actions, askt them to help the students they hurt, and ask them to become more involved in activities. I think if a bully helped animals, the bully would learn to help their friends and classmates. They would learn to talk to people when they are sad.
I think I would help a bully to be a better person and to be my friend. Bullies are mean people and with a little help would learn bettermanners to help and not hurt others.
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Jack Toscano,
William Fox ES, gr. 1
I like to watch the news with my mom and dad and I saw people treating others badly and I was thinking they shouldn't do that. I have been teased before because I like the NY Giants and I live in Virginia. I don't like that. But sometimes it is more serious, like people getting killed.
I want Libya to be free and Khadaffi to stop fighting his own people. That's just crazy. I'm glad that in Egypt Mubarak stopped the bad things he was doing and the people have freedom. You can't have a leader who won't listen to anyone else at all! Protesting is okay in America. Right now, some people are protesting because they don't like the government's decision about something. Thankfully, you are allowed to protest here and no one gets hurt.
I don't believe that people who have different color skin or from a different country or don't look the same as you are any worse than me. In Germany, a long time ago, they hurt and killed people who were different and that is not right. I went to the Holocaust Museum with my dad and learned about that.
If someone was bullying someone, you can ask them how would you feel if that happened to you?
If there was something going on in a different country that was bad, I would see if I could help. I would like to make a very important speech. It would convince Americans to not be scared and help other people who are getting hurt. I would try to raise money to donate it, to people who don't have any money. I will convince people to stand up for people who aren't treated right. I wrote a note to the governor once to not have smoking and guns because I wanted to stand up for people who got killed from it. I could do other things. I can teach someone how to protect themselves. I could go to a rally.
This is what I think should change in the world and I hope the bad stuff stops pretty soon.
The end!!!!!!!!!!!