By Tom Schneider
San Miguel’s two local Rotary Clubs and Rotaract are sponsoring a series of public events to promote peace in March and April.
On Tuesday, March 21, at noon, gather at the Peace Pole obelisk in Parque Juarez to celebrate the spring equinox when local indigenous elder Alicia Mayo will lead a four-direction ceremony including the chant “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in four languages: English, Nauatl, Otomi, and Spanish. Then, hearing-impaired students from the Escuela de Educacion Especial will present the same in Mexican sign language, and Maggie Sperling, a visually impaired Rotarian, will read the Braille version.
This Rotary Worldwide Peace Project is headed by a 92-year-old Hiroshima survivor from a Rotary Club in Japan. Featured at the same time will be San Miguel’s ginkgo biloba Peace Tree, a progeny of the one which sprouted at Ground Zero in Hiroshima after the world’s worst act of war almost 80 years ago.
On Sunday. April 16, at 10am, the Spanish-speaking Rotary Club will receive the Paloma de Paz (Dove of Peace) sculpture from the Rotary Club of Dolores Hidalgo at Instituto Sanmiguelense (ITSES) at Escuadron 201, Carretera San Miguel de Allende – Dr. Mora No.10-Km. 0.5, Palmita de Landeta, where their exchange students attend classes. Attendees are encouraged to wear white, the color of peace.
On Sunday, April 23, at 10am, the Spanish-speaking Rotary Club will present the Paloma de Paz sculpture to the English-speaking Rotary Club, which has been given the honor of taking it to the Rotary Convention in Guadalajara in May.
This free event will be at Parque Juarez at the Peace Pole obelisk. Rotaract members will be there, as well as people from ITSES. The event will feature presentations by a couple of Rotary Peace Fellows. All will then walk up Sollano to the Jardin to place the Paloma de Paz sculpture on display at the municipal tourist office at the Jardin.
On Tuesday, April 25, at 9:30am, Rotary Peace Fellow Maiden R. Manzal-Frank will present at the English-speaking Rotary Club on Resetting our Future: Provocateurs not Philanthropists, Turning Good Intentions into Global Impacts, her new book that guides people to learn how to create lasting impacts at the global level. This will be at the Biblioteca’s Sala Quetzal, which is accessible at that hour via the Relox entrance near Insurgentes.
