Peace Pole Dedication Ceremony - May 1, 2006
Lawrence’s eighth peace pole, planted on the University of Kansas campus, was dedicated at 5:30 p.m. on May 1, 2006, along the path between Haworth and Malott halls.
Kazumi Nakayama of The World Peace Prayer Society in Japan donated the eight-foot, hand-crafted pole that displays the message "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in eight languages - English, Spanish, Japanese, Shona, Farsi, Georgian, Turkish and Chinese. KU alumna Leslie Green Renzelman worked with Nakayama to choose KU as a site. The Alpha Pi Chapter of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society donated the funds for the installation and the International Student Association (ISA) will donate an explanatory plaque. ISA and Phi Beta Delta hosted the dedication ceremony, which included a delightful May Pole dance.
The Peace Pole Project was started in Japan by The World Peace Prayer Society, a nonprofit, nondenominational organization founded in 1955 by Masahisa Goi. Today more than 200,000 poles are in 180 countries to remind people to keep peace in their thoughts.
Lawrence's other peace poles are at Unity Church, Oread Friends Meeting, First Methodist Church, South Park, Ecumenical Christian Ministries, Unitarian Fellowship and Veterans' Park.
Before the ceremony...Dean Diana Carlin, Leslie Green Renzelman,
Kazumi Nakayama, Mayor Mike Amyx, Mike Ediger
Farashta Sediqzad addresses the group.
Kazumi Nakayama teaches everyone to say
"May Peace Prevail on Earth" in Japanese
Kazumi with the ISA officers. They are (from the left):
Mutsa Kajese
(Zimbabwe), ISA Student Senate Rep;
Giorgi Burduli (Georgia), ISA Webmaster; (Kazumi at the pole);
Farashta Sediqzad
(originally Afghanistan, now U.S.) ISA President;
Galo Salcedo (Equador),
ISA Treasurer;
Horacio Vargas (Bolivia) ISA Assistant Cultural Chair;
Julio Castillo (Bolivia) ISA Cultural Chair;
Ka Ying Lin (Hong
Kong/China) ISA Secretary;
and (Mike Ediger, ISA advisor)
Diana Carlin, Dean of the Graduate School
and International Programs
Farashta Sediqzad, President of International Student Association
Joe Potts, Director, International Student
and Scholar Services
Kazumi Nakayama, of The World Peace Prayer Society in Japan,
Donor of the new Peace Pole
Leslie Green Renzelman, KU alumna
responsible for arranging to bring
a peace pole to campus.
Mike Amyx, Mayor of the City of Lawrence
Linda Wiley, President-Elect of Alpha Pi Chapter of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society,
speaks and then leads a maypole dance.*
The new Peace Pole is unveiled by Farashta, Kazumi, and Linda.
The languages on this
pole are English, Spanish, Japanese, Shona, Farsi, Georgian, Turkish and Chinese.
Kazumi reads the inscription in Japanese. She was followed
by each of the
ISA leaders reading the inscription
in their own language.
*The Maypole Dance photo was taken by a Lawrence Journal-World photographer.
top