This past April, the Alliance for Just Solutions, a social justice project of the YWCA of White Plains and Central Westchester and the United Way of Westchester and Putnam, co-sponsored a unique event called Stand Against Racism.

Held at the YWCA, the event offered a full day of activities and presentations to raise awareness of racism in our community. This included a moving panel discussion, Personal Perspectives: Racism in Westchester & Possible Solutions and a pledge signing campaign through which 17 participating sites successfully collected well over 200 signatures of commitment to promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all people. In addition, the special day had a lasting impact upon some of the youngest members of our community through a Stand Against Racism art poster contest held among the classes in the YWCA’s after school program, Kids Connection.

This month, the participating Kids Connection classes enjoyed a special pizza party to celebrate their great work on the project and to award the student with the best poster. But in the end, one special first grade class taught the group that working together and understanding the importance of eliminating hate and intolerance was more important than winning.

While the goal of the poster contest was for every child to have an opportunity to individually win the contest, the first grade class decided work together and make a collaborative class poster. Together they learned the ‘No Room for Hate Pledge’ which states: “I pledge to treat everyone with kindness and respect. I will treat others the way I like to be treated. And by showing friendship everywhere, I will help make the world a better place!” They modeled this through painting hands of different colors around a solid object with the quote, “We become not a melting pot, but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”

The class serves as an example for all of the other classes and all who took part in the activity. By coming together and each placing a hand print on their poster, they reminded us all that we each play a part in fostering peace, justice and dignity for our communities and the world and we can make an even bigger difference by working together.

(Press release courtesy of Casey Kaufman/YWCA.)