Gilbert High School Comes Together in the Name of Peace

Mr. Cowan is a picture of peace

Joshua Perea-Diaz, Staff Writer.
May 4, 2023

Last Tuesday, April 25th, 2023 a gathering of over forty of our Gilbert students and a handful of staff participated in an exhibition for peace. In partnership with the organization City Arts, our school community had a chance to create and judge works of art designed for a potential mural themed on the idea of peace.

The event was carefully orchestrated by Journalism and Ethnic Studies teacher and club advisor, Janelle Frese, and her students. Teachers who also shared the opportunity with their classes included Mrs. Buker, Mr. Dominguez, Mrs. Ramstetter, Mrs. Fagu, and our school nurse Katrina Weed.

Destiny Salazar and Liz Vargas spent two hours the day before curating the art for the exhibit. Destiny and a dozen students led a peace walk to the quad and played music to invite more to join. Destiny and Jaimee G greeted guests at the entrance, a table with a megaphone, and asked a number of passersby (we did not count) whether or not they would like to see peace in the world.

“Would you like peace in the world?” Destiny projected through the megaphone. Answers were varied, but overwhelming in support of peace. A handful of our Gladiators also jammed away on percussion instruments and acoustic guitars which became a crescendo of rhythm and howls and shouts for world peace.

On a final note I would like to congratulate our brilliant young visionaries for their contributions to the exhibition. In First Place, Destiny Salas’s piece takes the cake. Runners-up in 2nd and 3rd place respectively, were pieces for peace by Andre Salas and Jhon Hernandez.

Here is a gallery of images commemorating this event, the first of its kind: