Student Luke Sorensen is helping put the world together.
The world, in this case, is a steel fountain with a rainbow of rocks hanging from it. Directing the effort is best-selling children's author Kathleen Arnason, who hands Sorensen and the other students stones to attach to the sculpture's pillars.
"This one's from Afghanistan," she says, pointing to a navy blue one. "This one is from Norway. It's about three million years old."
There are about 150 stones on Arnason's Fountain of Peace, an art project she's taking to schools across Canada to inspire children and promote world peace. Students at école Father Jan added a stone of their own to the project in a ceremony Thursday.
All of us can promote peace each day through our thoughts and actions, she told the students. "Thank you for being peacebuilders and peacemakers."
Vision of peace
Arnason plugs in the fountain. Water burbles out of its seven pillars over the stones and patters into the basin below.
Arnason, a recipient of the Queen's Jubilee Medal and a former figure skater, says the idea for the fountain came to her in a dream in 2006. "It was a way to talk about a message of peace."
She built the fountain over the next few years with the help of numerous volunteers, funding it through donations and out of her own pocket. "It sort of became a mission!"
It started touring B.C. last fall. Arnason is now taking the fountain to 35 schools across Canada, including Sir George Simpson on Monday, to collect stones and prayers for peace from local students. "Like Gandhi said, if you want world peace, you have to start with children."
At each stop, she plans to talk to the students about the importance of peace, sing a peace song with them and videotape their messages of peace for a documentary that will be given to members of Parliament. Each school will also receive an eight-foot-tall wooden beam called a peace-pole that bears the message, "May peace prevail on Earth," in French and English.
The fountain, designed by Order of Canada recipient and architect Gary Hilderman, features seven pillars to represent the seven continents. It will eventually hold about 400 stones, Arnason says, hopefully with one from each country on Earth.
It already has many strange specimens. There's a stone from near the peak of Mount Everest and a chunk of the Berlin Wall. There's a pink crystal polyhedron, a green jade turtle and a brown lucky penny. There's also a heart-shaped stone that was found on a Mexican beach on a night when hundreds of just-hatched turtles were scrambling for the sea, Arnason says.
On behalf of the school, Principal Maurice Trottier added a stone to the fountain that had been blessed by Father Mike Déchant, a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
"I have kept the stone for many years now and have thought of many people who could use my thoughts and prayers," he said. "It is time to give this stone in prayer for those people who have yet to experience the kind of peace I take for granted here in Canada."
Peacemakers
This is a very important project given the current state of the world, says former senator Thelma Chalifoux, who helped arrange Arnason's visit. "Canada has always been a peace-loving country," she says, and this fountain is a way to teach children to live in peace. "It's up to us as Canadians to take it and wrap our hearts around the endeavour."
It's fascinating to see all these stones from different countries, says Sorensen, 12. "I'm hoping for a world where there is no war and every country is ready to share the opportunities of the world."
Arnason says her heart grows a little bigger each time she hears these messages of peace from children. "By the time I get to Newfoundland, I will have the largest heart in Canada."
The fountain should complete its tour in June. For details, visit www.fountainofpeace.com.
