PLANTS, PEACE POLE & A PARTY

Unseasonably warm and bug-free weather made for perfect working conditions for the over 50 volunteers who came to clean, weed, prune, paint, mend, rake throughout the day at the 11th Annual Park Spruce-Up.  The basketball court was repaired, the baseball field prepared for the season, and three new trees donated by Sibylle Baier were planted.  Volunteers weeded the children's playground and around trees and shrubs.  Others pruned the now thriving rose bushes. 

The volunteers were joined by some 25 more people as the day's big event approached.  At 3 p.m., the sounds of a bagpipe filled the air and all present congregated in the southeast corner of the Park for the surprise (for Sibylle Baier) raising of the Peace Pole.  A long-time desire of Sibylle Baier was to erect a Peace Pole at the Park, so to honor her vision and efforts in making the Park, volunteers from the community helped organize the surprise event.  Spearheaded by Katey Grey, the Peace Pole project involved many.  The wood for the pole and the finishing work were provided by Ed Bond; Kirk Fox did the millwork to shape the pole; and Heartwood made the plaques with the words "May peace prevail on earth."  The Town's road crew--Craig Willis, Paul Keiper and Walter Cummings--prepped the site, poured the concrete and moved the dedication rock.  Becket Consolidated School Principal Laura Dumouchel and Tricia Drugmand helped students paint the plaques and create a banner celebrating peace.  The school's music teacher, Mrs. Gray, led the children in singing a song for peace.  The bag pipes were played by Matthew Lawrence and Bobby Sweet sang and played guitar.

The ceremony closed with all present joining hands in a circle while Matthew Lawrence played the bagpipes.  After the ceremony, people partook of the grilled food donated by Wohrles, Astro Beef and the Becket-Washington Recreation Committee, side dishes provided by the many volunteers and sodas donated by Coca Cola.

From Sibylle:

Dear friends and neighbors, dear children,

I’m still recovering from that miracle of a ceremony on the last Park Spruce-Up Day.  But, to be honest, I really don’t want to recover from it, ever!  To see what beauty, blessing and generosity is in our town, asks to be held and remembered!  My gratitude to each one of you who has been and is and will be part of making a vision of the Park a reality is tender and profound.  Without you, each one of your dear presence and spirit, this piece of land would still be a junkyard, an empty lot or overgrown jungle. 

From folks whose names I don’t even know, who started the soccer field and ball courts and the greening of the lot to Ronny Adams who planted the first blue spruce, to Ellen Bond and the commission who raised money for the Park so early on, to Marieanne Clark who, as head of the Conservation Commission at the time, wanted to do something other than just being visible as environmental police and so inspired the whole project, to Ed Bond, to Tricia Drugmand, Dave Bacon, the Pagery-Grey family, the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, Heartwood School, Peter Champoux, Meg Megas who faithfully prunes the roses every year, Denis Duquette, the principals and parents of the Becket School, the Southards, Molly Gerraty, the countless hearts and hands, the boys and girls, the birds, the dogs…yes, I am carried away and wish each of your names could be said and honored--because we are the greatest town and prove the Butterfly Effect right.  In Chaos theory, it is said that the moving of a butterfly’s wing in the Philippines affects the world weather.  And so, everyone, in their way, by moving their wings, so to speak, helps create what there is--even children’s song, blue birds, a piper piping, a rainbow and a circle of community around the planting of peace on common ground, grown from our labor, from our trust in trees growing and trust growing, from our love and respect for each other and those we don’t know.

What a gift you’ve given me and all of us.  I was completely surprised, honored, humbled and ecstatic, and I thank you for making it possible, for giving your hearts and hands to deepen the precious possibility of beauty and of peaceful community in the children, our homes and ourselves.  Peace can only grow if it grows in each of us.  May that lovely pole, made by so many hearts and hands, remind us for the longest time.

                                                                        Sibylle