Portsmouth High School’s We Speak and ECO club sponsored the dedication of peace cranes for Ukraine during Earth Awareness week. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine had made a big impact in all of our lives and Portsmouth wanted to show its support for peace through art. We worked with Helaine Wemple, PHS’s Spanish teacher, who organized this event.
We knew that this was a vital project to spread peace during these tough times. The clubs helped advertise this event to reach as many students as possible by hanging up posters all around the school and advertising on their social media platforms. On that day, more than 100 students gathered in Mrs. McGlinchey’s room to make origami cranes in the colors of the Ukraine flag for 2 days. There were students of all different backgrounds, including those who had familial connections in Ukraine. We learned a lot about them and everyone had a great time learning how to make cranes and contributing!
Once the cranes were all made, students gathered the next week to string the cranes with fishing line and make a beautiful mural. Service learning helped a lot by stringing them and helping us hang it up. It can be spotted near the PHS library! Days following this, it was exciting to see these cranes and show our peace dedication through art. We hope to create more projects through the coming years to help students promote peace.