Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)

By Ron Myers, Camas Friends Church

Need help? Who are you going to call? The yearly meeting office!

Needing help was where we found ourselves at Camas Friends Church as we began our planning for our third annual Peace Playhouse. After two successful years with Peace Playhouse, we decided it was time to put in some extra effort to develop a program that would be so clearly laid out that any of us could carry out the activities on fairly short notice. This would provide insurance in case the person scheduled to lead an activity was unable to be present at the scheduled time.

We remembered that before the yearly meeting’s reorganization, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee had developed Peace Trunks. The chests were now over at the Center for Peace Learning at George Fox University under the care of Lon Fendall (West Chehalem) and his associates.

The folks at the Center were incredibly helpful. There are three Peace Trunks—one each for primary, middle, and high school grades. Each contains materials that are appropriate for that age range. Lon sent us a copy of the bibliography for both the Primary and Middle trunks. After reviewing the bibliographies, we decided that the middle school trunk was most appropriate.

Our next step was to go to Newberg and bring the trunk back to Camas. All of us planning the Peace Playhouse had adequate time to pore over the trunk’s treasures. There were videos with peace-themed folktales and skits. There were storybooks focused on peace themes. Most important to us were the dozen or so instructional books on how to teach peace through arts, crafts, drama, games, etc.

We decided to purchase six of the books for our own continuing use—for future peace camps but also for Sunday school or children’s church curriculums. We were also introduced to the Peace Education Foundation and eventually purchased a Teacher’s Guide, poster, and bookmarks featuring conflict resolution steps.

We decided to develop a curriculum with each activity described in writing in a notebook. That way anyone could do the activity during the camp. We had a curriculum committee that developed the activities for each day and who would lead them. The Peace Playhouse was designed for three days for children going into the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grades.

Our overall goals were to teach the children peace-making and conflict resolution skills and to send them out as peace ambassadors in our community. Each of the days had a theme: respect for self; respect for others; respect for the earth. This year the campers kept journals and created a mural focused on the theme for each day. They also joined in music, crafts (like decorating a set of personalized cloth napkins), gardening, skits, and dialog about what peace means in each person’s life as well as strategies for handling conflict. The peace camps are part of our ongoing Quaker witness to our local community. We had 21 children this year, our largest number yet! Several children returned from previous years.

We had one returning camper who was quite shy last year. Her mother told us that her daughter often didn’t stay for the whole camp. But last year, the girl was ready each morning. She was thrilled this year when we sent out a notice to previous campers. During the camp this year, she was very involved and thoughtful about what the activities actually meant. She will be too old next year to attend, but hopes to come and be a volunteer helper.

This year we also had a boy with a bit of a learning disability. His mother was concerned about how well he would handle the camp. But the other kids helped him and he seemed to enjoy each day. During the last gathering with the parents present, this boy stood up and told everyone how much he had enjoyed himself because everyone was so kind to him.

We all get very attached to the children and are happy when they are successful in the various activities. While the camp was valuable for teaching conflict resolution skills to the children, an additional benefit was to us as a church. Almost everyone in the church was involved in the Peace Playhouse—whether with prayer, financial support, bringing cookies, helping in the kitchen, leading music, overseeing recess, teaching, crafts, drama, or exercise. We grew closer together in doing a worthwhile activity that had a valuable purpose. We got to know each other better and had fun together along with the kids. We thought it went so well that we adapted the Peace Playhouse to a two-day camp for our younger kids later in the summer.

We would highly recommend checking out the Peace Trunks. The materials were of great use, and the staff at the Center for Peace Learning very helpful. Looking over the materials will inspire you to put them to good use.

In closing, we would like to thank the Boards of Christian Education and Local Outreach, which gave us matching funding to get us started. We highly recommend not overlooking yearly meeting resources like the Peace Trunks and grant funding.