Tohatchi students combat violence through 'Whirled Peace'

ABOVE: Freshmen Terra Tohe and Candace Sam put up signs and pinwheels at Tohatchi High School on Monday as part of the Pinwheels for Peace project. The Freshman Academy class at the school put up hundreds of pinwheels as part of a service learning project to raise money for awareness of non-violence. BELOW: Donovan Norton plays and sings with a group of other drummers during the Pinwheels for Peace ceremony held at Tohatchi high School. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy
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Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau

TOHATCHI — For some, violence is a way of life. Students are bombarded with it through images from the media, video games, even music.

But Tohatchi High School students fought back against violence Monday in their own way, by planting “Pinwheels for Peace” to make a visual statement about non-violence. The event was a follow-up to Sunday’s International Day of Peace.

Pinwheels for Peace, started in 2005 by two art teachers in Florida, began as a way for students to express their feelings about what’s going on in the world and in their lives. The pinwheel is a childhood symbol reminding us of a time when things were simple, joyful, peaceful.

The Freshman Academy at Tohatchi High, led by teachers Mary Delaforio and Candice Graham, partnered with CARE 66, a homeless shelter in Gallup, to create 300 pinwheels for “whirled peace,” which they planted at the school Monday in 20 bales of hay donated by T&R Market.

“The Pinwheels for Peace project takes place all over the world. As far as we know from searching the Pinwheels for Peace gallery, it was the first time on the Navajo Nation and the first time on any Native American reservation that this has been done,” Delaforio said. The Tohatchi Drum Group came at a moment’s notice and drummed while the pinwheels were planted. One student sang Navajo songs and prayers were offered.

“A mother of three was beaten to death in the worst domestic violence incidents in New Mexico in front of her three children. We opened with a prayer and I dedicated that prayer to that mother and her family,” Delaforio said. “It was a day that was dedicated to putting anti-violence messages, good thoughts, and world peace out there in the universe.

“We had little kids that were there, the drummer’s families helped plant the pinwheels, the custodians helped plant the pinwheels. It was great! It was almost like a candle-lighting ceremony except we used pinwheels,” Delaforio said.

Gallup-McKinley County School Superintendent Ray Arsenault told the group, “This is an event I believe in wholeheartedly.”

Delaforio said Geri Moore of CARE 66 brought the project to them as part of a service-learning, community awareness program. “One day she spent the entire day with my kids and she helped really pull this thing together. A couple of times she brought some of the homeless residents.”

On Sept. 11, three of the residents spoke to the students through a “Faces on Homelessness Panel” regarding bad choices they had made in their lives.

“When the men went to speak to the youth, they emphasized that they had made choices that they wished they could do over, that their homelessness had resulted because of choices to continue addiction or criminality or violence,” Moore said. “The kids had an opportunity to hear their stories and ask questions.”

Students were particularly intrigued by “Bird,” or Bernardo Ramirez, a tattooed, former gang member who is turning his life around and is now attending the University of New Mexico. “He very much emphasized, ‘Don’t do the stupid things I did to think you’re cool and get in gangs. Trying to catch up in life is very difficult,’” Moore recounted.

He emphasized the importance of education and pleaded with students not to drop out of school. “He did not want to glamorize or romanticize his past. He told the kids straight out, ‘That’s a part of me I want to forget. Believe me, there’s nothing glamorous about it.’”

It was also a time for healing and a time of celebration for Keleigh Lucero and her mother Cynthia.

Moore said she had partnered with McKinley County Teen Court for CARE 66 to be one of the community service sites and Keleigh, 16, came to her after receiving 70 hours of community service for an altercation with her mother.
“She and her mom came to CARE 66 and I requested Keleigh take on the Pinwheels for Peace project to assist the Tohatchi High School freshmen so they could have 300 pinwheels. She made the most beautiful, exquisite pinwheels with sequins and glitter, and her creations opened up discussion with Tohatchi High School students,” Moore said.

“She made a beautiful yellow one with red sequins for the Zia. She also made a beautiful one that was a bumblebee, all sequins. People were grabbing them at the event because they were so exquisite. She made one that was a full Mexican flag, her heritage.

“She crafted 100 beautiful, real works of art. Her mom bought her all the glitter, all the pipe cleaners, the pins, and she and her mom sat down to work on them together and during those sit-downs were able to really, peacefully work out their differences that brought up the altercation.

"They’ve become very tight,” Moore said.

“The mother was very engaged in the whole process and really wanted her daughter to understand consequences and be able to identify what had triggered her. So they talked all those things out and made exquisite, exquisite pinwheels. She would come back to report to me and track the hours and I would ask her, ‘When you did this one, what were you thinking?’ It was things about the quiet of nature and how it only takes a minute to feel calm. Very profound thoughts,” Moore said.

ABOVE: Tohatchi High School freshmen line the side of Highway 491 near the school to help raise awareness for non-violence awareness on Monday. The project, called "Pinwheels for Peace", was put on by the Freshman Academy class and will also help raise money for Care 66 in Gallup. BELOW: Angelique Begay and Seth Brown hold a sign and wave to truckers on Highway 491 on Monday afternoon as part of their Pinwheels for Peace project. Students at Tohatchi High School made hundreds of pinwheels to help raise money for Care 66 in Gallup. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy