Fulton Rotary Club recently teamed up with Fulton Head Start to promote peace to preschoolers as part of Rotary's Peace and Conflict Resolution Month.
The Fulton Rotary Club is recognized as a Peacebuilder Club by the Rotary Action Group for Peace. This means the club focuses on peace and assists in Rotary's mission "to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace," a Rotary release states.
On March 17, the club donated six children's books about peace and conflict resolution to Fulton Head Start's library. Rotarians also threw a party to promote peace.
Rotarians and members of Fulton High School's Interact Club read the books to the Head Start students. They also did a conflict resolution activity with them, a release states.
After the activity, each student was given a coloring book of peace and conflict coloring pages and a box of crayons to take home.
Romaine Dressy, Interact Club member and Rotary Youth Exchange Student from Belgium, assisted at the party. Rotarians Sherry McCarthy, Amanda Gowin, Jan Reyes, Steve Long, Debbie Laughlin and Jan Finke also assisted.
McCarthy, chair of Fulton Rotary's peace committee, said the club wants to promote peace and conflict resolution to young children so they become peace-building adults when they grow up.
"The Fulton Rotary Club seeks to be identified as an organization that brings together people from diverse life experiences and backgrounds to build a healthy and inclusive community," McCarthy said in a release.
Fulton Rotary Club was one of the first five clubs in District 6080 -- which includes most of central and southern Missouri -- to be recognized as a Peacebuilder Club. The club achieved this recognition in 2020, a release states.
The club used a $500 district grant in 2021 to purchase 50 children's books about peace and conflict resolution. These books were donated to the Callaway County Public Library.
In 2022, the club collaborated with the City of Fulton and the Department of Parks and Recreation to install eight-foot metal peace poles at Veterans Park and Memorial Park.