With less than a week remaining until fall quarter begins at South Seattle College, the main SSC campus on Puget Ridge has a new feature – the 10th Peace Pole installed by the Rotary Club of West Seattle, one of more than 300,000 worldwide.
It was dedicated this afternoon at a ceremony during which its message – May Peace Prevail on Earth – was repeated in each of the languages in which it’s written on the pole:
Before the reading, Rotarian Keith Hughes recapped the history of the Peace Poles, and club president Stefanie Felix noted that “peace is at the heart of Rotary”:
Felix presented a commemorative plaque to SSC president Dr. Monica Brown:
Dr. Brown spoke as the event began, welcoming the pole as a “symbol of hope and understanding” and explaining that SSC students had chosen the languages in which the peace wish is inscribed on the pole:
And Seattle Colleges navigator Patricia Allen-Dick, of Tlingit and Haida heritage, literally brought it all home with a Native song and blessing:
Everyone present was invited to be in a photo to mark the occasion:
You can see the new Peace Pole on the south side of the courtyard in SSC’s central administration building.