The Rotary Club of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor will hold a dedication ceremony this week for its new peace pole, now in place in the Margaret B. Upton Arboretum in St. Joseph.
Rotary President Renee Borah tells us the organization will host the Rotary District Conference this weekend with more than 200 Rotarians in town. As part of that, they’ll dedicate the peace pole at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.
Borah says peace poles come from a movement started by Japanese religious leader Masahisa Goi in 1955.
“His message was just simply, ‘May peace prevail on Earth,’ and that became the foundation of a movement that is displayed in peace poles and communities across the globe in many different languages,” Borah said. “Our peace pole has four languages — French, English, of course, Spanish, and Pottawatomi.”
The pole itself is a simple, but with a powerful message.
“It’s a white pole, it has our rotary symbol at the top, and it says, ‘May peace prevail on earth,’ and the language is around the four sides.”
Borah says the city of St. Joseph worked with the Rotary while it got the pole in place near the MLK monument. She notes the peace pole movement has taken off worldwide, resulting in more than 200,000 of the monuments standing around the globe, including several in Berrien County parks and other public places.
Everyone’s invited to the dedication on Friday.
