On Monday, Sept. 21 Explorer West Middle School took part in an international art and literacy project, Pinwheels for Peace by “planting” pinwheels with messages of peace. This was the third year the school has participated. Sept. 21 is also International Peace Day.

Pinwheels for Peace is an art installation project started last year by two Art teachers, Ann Ayers and Ellen McMillan, of Coconut Creek, Fla., as a way for students to express their feelings about world events and attitudes.

In 2005, groups in more than 1,325 locations throughout the world were spinning pinwheels on Sept. 21. There were approximately 500,000 pinwheels spinning throughout the world. The number was expected to be greater in 2009.

At Explorer West, art teacher Sarah Robertson Palmer had her seventh-grade students hand make and decorate metallic pinwheels, which were mounted on drinking straws and affixed to the school's link fence facing 30th Avenue Southwest.

"I wrote 'Peace' and 'Be Happy' and 'Be Peaceful' and drew a peace sign on my pinwheel," said student Amelia Best.

"I wrote 'Say something nice to someone' because that's something peaceful," said student Sam Waller.

"Mine says 'Respect yourself and respect others,'" said another student Sarah Watson.

"Mine is 'Peace, love and happiness,' and I wrote 'Strawberry Fields Forever," said student Ariel Harris. "It's from the song. My parents always played it when I was really little. I like the Beatles."

"I said that peace is good a bunch," said student Sam Tabbutt, while surrounded by approving giggles from his classmates.