Rotary Club of Morganton Dedicates Peace Pole At Burke Arts Council

The Rotary Club of Morganton met the call from DG Connie Molland and installed a Peace Pole on the front lawn of the Burke Arts Council, a treasured Morganton organization currently headed by Deborah Jones, Rotary Club of Morganton Secretary. A dedication ceremony was held on Thursday, June 19, to coincide with the Morganton Arts Commission’s Third Thursday Art Crawl. Club President Kim Van Sickler presided over the dedication that was threatened by a summer thunderstorm, but the skies cleared and the clouds parted just in time for the ceremony.

Rotary Club of Morganton member Scott Brooks, a woodworking hobbyist, created the club’s peace pole using a timber left over from the Burke Arts Council’s 2022 renovation. He carved the Rotary seal into it as well as the message, “May Peace Prevail on Earth” on four sides: one side in English and the other sides in Hmong, Spanish, and Aquateco (otherwise known as Awakatek, Coyotin, Chalchitec, Balamiha, or natively as Qa’yol — a Mayan language spoken in Guatemala, primarily in Huehuetenango and around Aguacatán). These languages are representative of the tongues spoken most frequently in Morganton.

As Kim stated in her dedication, “With our beautiful hand-crafted Peace Pole, we are now a part of this international rallying cry especially poignant during these divisive times, calling for a focus on peaceful solutions to our problems, collaboration and teamwork, compassion, concern and caring for our fellow men and women…this Peace Pole is a symbol for quiet reflection, conversation, meditation and a gathering place for friendship and the groundswell of a movement.  It’s a symbol to go forth and be peaceful, to be neighborly, to care about our community and everyone in it.”  To hear Kim’s entire dedication speech, please visit the Rotary Club of Morganton Facebook Page.