A monument to peace has been erected in Centennial Park.
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A peace pole was recently installed at the Rotary Club of Sarnia Bluewaterland’s Peace Garden in the park, said the club’s Dale Wilcox.
The garden, which went in near the waterfront off Harbor Road about 2018, “didn’t have a whole lot of focus,” she said.
“It’s got a nice couple of benches and it’s a nice view of the water from there and all the rest, but is kind of over there by itself.”
The pole, with the words ‘May peace prevail on Earth’ in English, French and Ojibwe, adds significance to the space and ties in with Rotary International’s priority for peace, Wilcox said.
The Sarnia Bluewaterland club’s name is on the pole’s fourth side, she said.
People are invited to attend a dedication Saturday at noon.
“There’s an invitation as part of the dedication service for any people gathered there to recite ‘May peace prevail on Earth’ ” in their homeland’s language, Wilcox said.
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People from Ukraine, Poland, India, and Pakistan are expected to attend, she said.
“One of our members is trying to polish up his German so he can do it, too,” she said. “It will be nice to see the sharing.”
Peace poles were created in 1955 in Japan by Masahisa Goi, in the wake of the Second World War and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, club officials said in a release.
Some 250,000 peace poles are planted around the world, officials said in the release.
They symbolize a call for peace, Wilcox said.
“And my goodness, we sure need peace,” she said, noting ongoing wars in Palestine and Ukraine, and the many Ukrainians who’ve fled to Sarnia.
Sarnia has become more multicultural in recent years, she said. “And this is a chance to acknowledge that many of those people have come from centers where there is no peace.”
Another peace pole in Sarnia has stood at the Lawrence House Center for the Arts since 2003.
In 1981, a unanimous United Nations resolution designated Sept. 21 the annual International Day of Peace.
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