Manhattan Beach's Pennekamp Elementary Partners With Compton Kids

RELATED: Stand4Peace Manhattan Beach: Here's How You Can Participate!

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — The United Nations' International Day of Peace gets a local angle today when students in the Manhattan Beach and Compton Unified school districts join together for a live virtual program to celebrate "Peace Day" and serve as a catalyst for ongoing education, awareness and action.

"Shaping Peace Together," a 30-minute program for the students from Manhattan Beach based STAND4PEACE, a local non-partisan, apolitical, non-profit organization founded in 2018, goes live today on YouTube, beginning at 11:40 a.m. and expected to end around 12:10 p.m. The program is also open to members of the public who want to watch. Live from Pennekamp Elementary in Manhattan Beach and Emerson Elementary School in Compton, participants at those locations will include event organizers, designated speakers and honored guests. Students, teachers and community attendees will all participate via online. Manhattan Beach Mayor Richard Montgomery and City Council members Nancy Hersman and Hildy Stern will attend the live event at Pennekamp.

There is no cost to watch the online program. Registration via eventbrite.com enables organizers to plan for the live event.

The program gives students the opportunity to create a personalized PEACE Action plan in which they declare what PEACE means to them and what they will commit to do to encourage PEACE within their community, family and themselves. STAND4PEACE is providing online resources for all to use — students, teachers and the community.

STAND4PEACE founders Karen Wooldridge and Donna Barney Nicholson, who teaches first grade at Pennekamp, actively work to provide the community and world with tools for peace. The two women, who met while living in Manhattan Beach as "boy moms," shared a "desire to help create a kinder, gentler world for their children and their children's children," according to their website.

The two moms decided to take a course called “Taking a Stand for Peace in a Volatile World” presented Dr. Scilla Elworthy, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author of "The Business Plan for Peace," and Sheva Carr, counding CEO of Heart Ambassadors and HeartMath’s HeartMastery Program, and co-director of HeartMath Healthcare. Both women are long-time peace-builders and agents of change, say Wooldridge and Nicholson.

"We learned about incredible brave non-violent peacemakers, heard from various guest speakers, learned that we all can have an impact on peace, had homework assignments, and given a final peace-building project to create impact on our own community," said Wooldridge.

The "Shaping PEACE Together" program includes the following contributors and partners:

• Darin Brawley-Superintendent, CUSD
• Dr. Michael Matthews-Superintendent, MBUSD
• Dr. Jennifer Moon-Dir of Education Services, CUSD
• Lakisha Moore-Principal, Emerson Elementary School-Compton
• Dr. Karina Gerger-Principal, Pennekamp Elementary School-Manhattan Beach
• Erin Toppenberg-Consultant & Former representative to the United Nations for NGO Pathways to Peace
• Donna Barney Nicholson-1 st Grade Teacher, Pennekamp Elementary School and Co-Founder of STAND4PEACE
• Karen Wooldridge-Co-Founder of STAND4PEACE
• Court Crandall-writer, speaker, advertising executive, director of Free Throw documentary, MB parent and long-time mentor to students of CUSD that helped create the partnership.
• Mark Burrell, CEO – CELEBYOU Talent Challenge App