Draper Middle School is located in Scenectoday, a town 20 minutes’ drive north from the state capital, Albany, and is a big school with an adjacent public high school. Ms. Maryam Mair, a teacher of Draper Middle School, proposed implementation of the Kaki Tree Project to the school and her colleagues, 3 teachers applied for the project on behalf of the school.
On the day before the ceremony, 30 students of “Peers of Peace” club, whose advisor was Ms. Maryam Mair, participated the Origami workshop. They also made a banner.
The ceremony held at the auditorium of the adjacent high school was spectacular. It started with music performance followed by a talk on the atomic bomb, an introduction of the Kaki Tree Project (made with computer-generated images), jazz performance by the students, dance performance by the high school’s dance club and a speech by the project’s executive committee member. The persimmon tree was planted with its pot and the members of the “Peers of Peace” club covered it with soil.
The ceremony was a great success with over one thousand students participants and a passionate support from the three teachers. Especially, an introduction of the persimmon tree made with computer-generated images by Ms. Maryam and her child was remarkable. The introduction was very easy for children to understand by telling “the Sadako Story” and using the photos from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. Some children were moved to tears and many of them went up on stage to see the persimmon tree and offer to shake hands after the ceremony. It seems that after the 9.11 attacks, children too now understand the horror and pain of the atomic bomb victims. The message sent to the school by the project’s executive committee after the 9.11 attacks was on display at the entrance of the school and it seemed to indicate the change in atmosphere since the incident.
We were all impressed by the 3 teachers and their ability to take action to promote the project to the school principal because it was quite unusual to have such a ceremony spending the entire morning with the participation of all the students.
