The Peace Garden at California State University, Fresno will display 100 peace flags in honor of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday and the 20th anniversary of the garden Friday through Sunday, Oct. 1-3.

Highlights of the Peace Garden anniversary are a concert and candlelight vigil at 7:30 p.m. Friday and a ceremony beginning at 8:30 a.m. Saturday with garlanding of the Gandhi statue, speeches and a reenactment of Gandhi’s Salt March in 1930 that set India on the path to independence from British rule.

The flags in the garden were decorated on Mediator Appreciation Day in May by 900 peer mediators – grade school children from the Fresno, Clovis, Central, Sanger and Dinuba Unified School districts and Chowchilla. The mediators are trained by Fresno State students to help resolve disputes between children at dozens of schools as part of Fresno State’s nationally acclaimed Mediator Mentors project.

The flags were initially constructed by Fresno State teacher education candidates and decorated by the children, with phrases encouraging communities to embrace peace.

Each flag carries the Fresno State Centennial logo, symbolizing the university’s commitment to peaceful resolution of disputes and its 100 years of preparing teachers for central San Joaquin Valley classrooms.

“We can all be encouraged by the fact that our youngest citizens are learning the skills necessary to negotiate the challenges presented by the complex world they will someday lead,” said Dr. Pamela Lane-Garon, an education professor and director of Mediator Mentors.

(Copy prepared by University Communications news intern Sadie Thomas.)

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