About High Country Peace Village
High Country Peace Village is a collaborative work of hope seeking to offer positive, compassionate, opportunities to our children for connection, belonging and ways to be peacemakers. The planning team is made up mostly of caring adults from across our multi faith community. Peace Village is not seeking to teach or adhere to any specific faith tradition.
High Country Peace Village hopes to provide opportunities to meet various diverse people so that we will lower our inhibitions and fears of our neighbors who seem different than us. Through peacemaking skills of open, non-violent communication, listening and empathy, and journeying on the path of kindness, we seek to teach, lead and demonstrate that we can love our neighbors, even if they are different from us.
The Need We Saw for High Country Peace Village
Watauga County has so much going for it, but even in our incredible community, there are still unmet needs. High Country Peace Village seeks to address the needs we’ve heard from parents from religious/faith congregations around our county.
Parents wanted something for kids to do between summer camps and the new school year, more ways for kids to experience diversity and gain emotional/relational resilience, and more events where elementary school kids can get to know each other before they start high school together.
Our eight elementary schools represent diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. A few have fewer than 150 students across eight grades and are completely rural. Our Hispanic population is more centrally located in the largest of our elementary schools.
About the Peace Village Curriculum
A curriculum known as “Peace Village” came to the attention of High Country United Church of Christ in 2015. The first Peace Village was held in Oregon in 1998. Peace Village has since been incorporated as a 501c3 non-profit expanding across states and oceans to other continents.
Peace Village was created to meet the need of a changing world that becomes more pluralistic and polarizing seemingly each day. It is designed as a collaborative, interfaith peace education summer day camp.
Here in the High Country, we’ve added monthly gatherings throughout the school year to continue building our community and for touch points of support. In its 25+ years of existence, the effectiveness of this day camp is documented anecdotally through the Peace Village website and in conversations with its leader.
Who’s Behind High Country Peace Village
Our Steering Team is currently made up of Allison Margerison (parent of 2 campers,) Jan Stanley (former elementary school teacher and college professor), Sondra Edwards (former elementary school music educator and children’s coordinator within a progressive church).
The overall Planning and Leadership is made up of members of the Watauga Bahai Community, the Temple of the High Country, Boone United Methodist Church, Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and High Country UCC.
Valle Crucis Conference Center and their support team provide us with abundant opportunities to explore their grounds, eat healthy and delicious food and feel at home in their spaces for gathering together.