Speech given by Alex, a 9th grade participant in Kids4Peace Seattle, at Inspiring Hope, The Kids4Peace Seattle Annual Benefit.
My name is Alex. I am a 9th grade Christian, and am in my 4th year at Kids4Peace.
Alex and Monica during our Fall Retreat.
I joined Kids4Peace because I was going to a Christian private school in a primarily white neighborhood. I saw a lack of diversity in my life, but once I joined Kids4Peace I saw kids my age with different views and backgrounds together. Kids4Peace is important to me because I can see change happening, I can make change happen. Since I have joined Kids4Peace, I have taken detours from days at the mall to protest in the airport, taught world religion lessons to the kids at my sister’s middle school, pulled weeds in immigrant farmer’s fields, and met kids who live on the other side of the world.
Half of these things I did not even do within Kids4Peace programs, but I guarantee you I would not have done them if I was not in this program. This is why Kids4Peace is important: it not only has us create change in our Kids4Peace community, but it inspires us to go back into our own communities and create change every day.
Growing up I always had a specific idea of how I should act and how I should be because of the community I grew up in. In Kids4Peace I can share my values without fear of judgment, IN KIDS4PEACE MY VOICE IS HEARD.
Kids4Peace is a name that not everyone understands because here in Seattle we are not fighting a physical war, but that does not mean we do not have things to stand for. In Kids4Peace we strive for equity, we push for love, we struggle for the voices of everyone to be heard, we lobby for social justice, locally, nationally, and internationally.
We hope you have learned a thing or two about our organization this evening, and that you are inspired by our hope for peace and equity both in our community and across the world.
Kids4Peace Blog 