TALLULAH FALLS, Ga. — On the lawn of the Tallulah Falls School lower and middle school campus, hundreds of brightly colored pinwheels twirled in the September breeze. Each one carried a simple but powerful message—peace.
Art teacher Paige Barlow guided her students in creating the display as part of Pinwheels for Peace, an international art and literacy project designed to give young people a voice in a world often marked by conflict.
“This project is non-political – peace doesn’t necessarily have to be associated with the conflict of war; it can be related to violence/intolerance in our daily lives, to a peace of mind,” Barlow explained. “To each of us, peace can take on a different meaning.”
A movement that started with teachers
The initiative began in 2005 when two Florida art teachers, Ann Ayers and Ellen McMillan, encouraged students to express their thoughts about peace through pinwheels. That first year, pinwheels spun in more than 1,300 locations around the globe. By 2017, the movement had grown to more than 4.5 million pinwheels in over 3,500 sites worldwide, stretching from the U.S. to Asia, Africa, Europe, and beyond.
For Tallulah Falls students, it was a chance not only to create art but to reflect on what peace means in their own lives.
Students find their own definitions
Seventh grader Gwen Peters of Toccoa drew her best friend’s eye for her project because, she said, her friend brings her peace.
“We want everyone in the world to feel the same sense of peace that we can get from a friendship or a sunset,” Peters said.
Scarlett Stapleton of Alto added her own vision.
“When I am looking at our peace sign, I realize there are so many ways to make peace. It can come in so many shapes and sizes and colors,” Stapleton said. “Peace means no worry, no pain, and no sorrow, but there will be problems; but peace means people to have a sense of comfort even when there are problems.”
The students agreed peace doesn’t always come easily, but it is always possible to find. For some, the whirling pinwheels symbolized the persistence needed to achieve it.
“I look at these pinwheels – we want them to keep spinning like we want to have peace constantly,” said Dessa Guinn of Clarkesville.
Lessons in diversity and understanding
The pinwheels also represented unity in diversity for Julia Rodriguez Manrique, a seventh grader and boarding student from Madrid, Spain. She pointed to the different shapes and colors scattered across the campus.
“We are all different, but everyone can make peace,” Rodriguez Manrique said.
Teaching peace, one pinwheel at a time
For Barlow, the real lesson came not just in the finished display but in the conversations her students had along the way—discussions about patience, understanding, and the many forms peace can take.
On that breezy September day, the spinning pinwheels at Tallulah Falls did just that, carrying a message of hope far beyond the school grounds.
