Play in PeaceMay 15, 2020

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

Table of Content

History of Play in Peace

Poem: For Zina

What Does Peace Mean to You

(Writing Activity)

Create a Peace Pinwheel

Thousand Paper Cranes

A “Peace is… Heart Mobile”

Peace Rock

Traditional Coloring Pages

Video Links

For many people, May 15th will be “just another day.” This is especially true for those of us under stay at home orders due to the Covid 19. However, for the McCarver family, May 15th is a very special day. It is the tenth anniversary of Play in Peace. Sadly, we will not be able to celebrate together at McCarver Park, but the day can still be celebrated with some of the traditional activities that would occur in your classroom. Make Friday the 15th a Day of Play!

Tacoma Plays in Peace

• Nearly four years after the tragic abduction and murder of 12-year-old Zina Linnik, classmates, faculty and community members of the McCarver Elementary student will gather Friday to celebrate Play in Peace Day and park improvements that have been made in Linnik’s memory.

• When the McCarver Peacemakers and staff teamed up with Metro Parks Tacoma, the Greater Metro Parks Foundation and members of the Hilltop community, they focused their efforts on two parks that bookend Linnik’s Hilltop neighborhood: historic Wright Park, located near the Stadium District, and McCarver Park, located adjacent to McCarver Elementary School.

Photos: Courtesy Tacoma Metro Parks

The children’s vision was to develop a park reflecting Linnik’s Ukrainian heritage and filled with activities she loved. As their vision began to unfold, urban planning students from the University of Washington were brought into the classroom to work with the elementary students and park Planning staff to create design plans reflecting their vision.

Their design concept for McCarver Park included unique Ukrainian inspired art, including huge mosaic eggs. The park’s “Aerial Aquarium” represents not only Linnik’s heritage, but also her love for Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. The center of the park would boast a reading circle, another art laden space where visitors are inspired to crack open a book and enjoy one of Linnik’s favorite pastimes, or reflect on the words of the poem written in her memory and etched into the tiles of the seating wall. There would be a diverse playground featuring high tech interactive play equipment, juxtaposed alongside a long time playground favorite that Linnik loved to play — tetherball.

At Wright Park, there would be a beautiful new sprayground to replace the aging wading pool and playground equipment that children and families could play on together.

It was a vision with an estimated $3.5 million budget for construction and an endowment to help support the long-term care of the new community resources. Starting with a limited budget of just under $326,000 available from the 2005 Park Improvement Bond and the support of the Greater Metro Parks Foundation, the children established the Zina Linnik Project and began selling tee-shirts and hosting fundraising activities. They studied government and boarded buses traveling to the state capital as well as Tacoma City Council, Metro Parks Board and Tacoma School Board meetings to advocate for support from their elected leaders. Those were the first steps in what would become a profound educational journey.

Faculty throughout McCarver Elementary adopted an innovative approach to teaching. They welcomed professors and students from local universities, park planners, grant writers and others into the school to engage the children in unprecedented hands on learning opportunities that covered a gamut of topics from park planning, environmental restoration, construction, gardening, to Web design and social media. At the heart of it all, the children honed individual skills in writing and public speaking, gained an understanding of their personal power to shape the world in which they live by uniting in meaningful relationships with their community, and set long-range goals to attend college.

The Zina Linnik Project at McCarver has become a model for civic-engagement and innovation in education and Play in Peace Day will serve as an annual event to celebrate the partnerships that have been forged through this project.

Tacoma Daily Index, May 20, 2011

For Zinaby: Lucas Smiraldo

“I will watch over you:

I will notice you

I will sink the pink

Of your t-shirt

Into my front memory

And cradle your flip flops

In the best of my arms.

“I will notice you—

When your expression changes,

Like showers after noon day

“I will notice your weather

Like the precious climate you are

And invite you to rain or sun or storm

While I listen”

I will pass out stationary

in Sunflower Yellow,

The Orange of late October

And

Mountain Trail Wildflower Pink

And you will write

To your children

On these sheets

And make promises

That we keep

And the letters will say…

You, the young, will be surroundedby Hilltop Villages of peoplelooking over you,knowing your subtle changesas you become the revolving sunand our wind and moon and you will know that weare listening.

Next we will greet each other On our Hilltop in a wayThat makes us a new culture hereNot like AmericansWith a thoughtless “Hi” or “Hello.”

We will become South Africans on these blocksWe will learn from AfricansWith easy arms and begin our embrace this way:

“How are the children?”This will be our greetingAnd we will earn each and every reply to thisDo you hear me?We will earn this answer:“The children are well.”We live for those words—“The children are well.”

We will organize our days to this end And cherish our youngIn daily notesIn the primary colorsOn Zina’s dance Capri pants

And send those promisesTo our neighbors Until every Hilltop mailboxIs full

And harvest those envelopes each dayAnd act upon our commitmentUntil the next day’s bundle arrives. We will watch for our young.

We will watch over themAnd notice themAnd listen to their storiesAnd keep them in our greetingsUntil no strangerOr terrible friendCan penetrate our village.

And we will begin to earnThe sisters and brothers and playmates and classmatesAnd babies awaiting their birth

And all of those girls with pink t-shirtsCapri pants red flip flopsAnd noon day smiles

And boysWith the moon in their eyesMountains in their stepsThe swing sets in their fingers

We will earn them allWe will earn them all

“How are the children?”“How are the children?”“How are the children?”

For Zina, we’ll answer:

“THE CHILDREN ARE WELL.”

What does PEACE mean to you? Brainstorm the meaning of peace to you.Write about what peace smells like, looks like and sounds like. Use the following templates to write and illustrate your thoughts.

Create a Peace Pinwheel

Make your own Peace Pinwheel

Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes

• The story of Sadako

• Two-year-old Sadako Sasaki was living in Hiroshima when the atom bomb was dropped. Sadly, ten years later, she was diagnosed with leukemia, also known as "atom bomb disease."There is a Japanese legend that says that if a sick person folds 1,000 paper cranes, the gods will make her well again. Sadako spent long hours in bed, folding those paper cranes, and never giving up that hope. When Sadako had folded six hundred and forty-four cranes, and they hung above her bed on strings, her classmates folded the rest.Today there is a memorial in Hiroshima Peace Park dedicated to Sadako. Children come there and leave the paper cranes they make in her honor.Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is based on a true story.

Guided instructions on how to make a paper crane.http://japansensei.weebly.com/sadako--the-1000-paper-cranes.html

Make A Peace is… Heart Mobile

Paint a Peace Rock: Use acrylic paints or sharpie markers to paint a picture or message on a rock and hide it somewhere in your neighborhood for finding.

Traditional Coloring Pages

Video links The story of McCarver Park

A Community Transformed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA-VYbwVyXs

A Beautiful Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LkKYPmrujw

From Tragedy to Triumph

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi4q6PaKZHI