Peace Educators Allied for Children Everywhere is proud to present our 2024 P.E.A.C.E. awards to:
Monica Moran
An educator whose love of books is central to her mission
Thank you for finding P.E.A.C.E. and choosing it as a natural place to share our mutual love of bringing children and adults together with good books. Our Book Club is now in its third year with your leadership. Your understanding of the value of books is expressed in this quotation from you, “Books are an opportunity to explore empathy and build bridges. We understand our world and others better through shared stories. Books preserve our history, help illuminate values and celebrate our connections.” As you clearly state, they are central to our aspirations as peace educators. Your teaching experience with a variety of age groups, and now as a Kindergarten coordinator, makes you sensitive to the need to fit the book to the audience, and for teachers to develop this skill. The Book Group is allowing us to join you in sharing our enthusiasm and to find more extraordinary books to enhance our work. As you tell us, these books are available in libraries, so we should look for them. We are grateful to you for your love of books and for bringing this enriching opportunity to the work of P.E.A.C.E.
Pat Landry
A determined educator for Native Americans, supporting them here, and now
We honor you for your lifetime commitment to closing the education gap around Native Americans caused by myths of their history and supposed disappearance, and by the falsehoods of Hollywood portrayals. As an educator you brought their culture to Native American children and supported their parents struggling to keep their culture alive in the face of societal indifference and ignorance. As an activist you have raised your voice to correct the mis-teachings about that history and contemporary realities. Raised in Boston by parents of Mi’kmaq and Irish background, you became a fighter for change. Beginning as a Head Start parent volunteer, you chose early childhood education, and with a degree from Wheelock, earned at night, moved up from assistant teacher to become the Director of the Native American HeadStart in Boston. You brought your special perspective to the Boston Children’s Museum as an advisor, and became a long-time member of the Boston AEYC, and a Board member of the North American Indian Center of Boston. We are grateful that you joined CEASE, now P.E.A.C.E., in the 90s as we were creating our Wampanoag Curriculum project in response to the 1992 400th Anniversary of Columbus’ arrival on these shores. You continue to help us all in sharing the knowledge that Native Americans are living throughout our land, on reservations, in urban and rural areas, deserving of understanding, respect and support. Luckily for Boston you are also a Red Sox fan and a Jazz enthusiast. Thank you for the spirit you bring to all you do!
Carol Welp
A creative educator and activist for quality in the care of children
We welcome you and thank you for joining us and bringing your Canadian perspective to our deliberations as a member of the Executive Committee. Your lifetime of experience of early education in Canada, while following the trends that have developed in your country and in the U.S., informs all you share. You connect to P.E.A.C.E. because you met its founder, Peggy Schirmer, in 1976 in Cambridge before any of the rest of us. You worked together on a report about family issues, including childcare. You shared her commitment to quality, recognizing the need for spaces to accommodate diversity. You traveled to China together studying childcare programs there. Back in Canada, you did it all, creating programs from scratch; a Co-op program for toddlers like your son, then in 1982, a childcare center where you stayed as director for 20 years. You were studying and teaching, developing expertise in child health, special needs, bilingual programs, and the complexity of creating quality.
Since those years you have continued your research and been a consultant, trainer and evaluator. We are grateful for your insights and values, and your belief that “Change is possible.” Thank you for your commitment and hope.
