Hundreds of colorful, hand-crafted pinwheels recently blanketed the lawns of each elementary school in the Fayetteville-Manlius School District. On Sept. 21, kindergarten through fourth-grade students planted pinwheels outside of Enders Road, Fayetteville and Mott Road elementary schools to celebrate International Day of Peace.

The project, Pinwheels for Peace is an international initiative that encourages students to use visual artwork and words to express their feelings of respect, peace, tolerance and living in harmony.

“Students are learning that small acts of kindness go a long way towards creating peace,” said Fayetteville Elementary School art teacher Julie Gratien.

During art class, students decorated paper pinwheels with symbols and messages of love, peace and respect. Some students shared their wishes for world peace – and how they plan to help achieve it – while others expressed their feelings about what’s going on in the world and in their lives.

Before planting their pinwheels into the ground, students at each school participated in an assembly where they sang songs about kindness, pledged their commitment to living as

peaceful people and shared personal wishes for world peace.

“It’s important that students take responsibility for being peaceful people and set an example for other students,” Mott Road Elementary School art teacher Kaila Westervelt said.

The Pinwheels for Peace project was started in 2005 by two high school art teachers in Florida. Gratien launched F-M’s participation in the international project six years ago when she taught at Mott Road.

“This visual display has been a favorite among staff and students,” Mott Road school counselor Julie Wolf said. “We love to get outside and “plant” our pinwheels and give our students a chance to share and hear about the great ways we show peace at Mott Road.”

It is estimated that in 2015 there were more than 4 million pinwheels displayed around the world on International Peace Day, according to the project’s website.