by Laila Hinton, Reporter, WVTV
(photo credit / WVTV)
NAPERVILLE – Part of Veterans Park in Naperville is an eight-foot pole that celebrates peace both near and far. The Veterans Park Peace Pole was created and dedicated seven years ago and is a symbol of the community’s commitment to inclusion, embracing different cultures, traditions, races and faiths.
“This steel, laser-cut poll was dedicated in 2015,” said volunteer caretaker Carolyn Lauing Finzer. “At that time, Revati Natesan was the founder of the ThinkGlobal Arts Foundation, and she saw that there was a need for diversity and inclusion to be high points in our community. So a group of us got together. We selected an artist from Ohio who did the laser cutting. There are 12 languages on our pole, two per side, and each one in translation says ‘may peace prevail on Earth’.”
“I can still remember the dedication ceremony. We enlisted the help of North Central College international students who all came in their traditional ethnic attire. They came from the Oak Forest just beyond the pole, and, one at a time, they stood at a microphone, and they said in their language in their dialect, ‘may peace prevail on Earth’. It was very emotional. In my heart and mind, it’s very appropriate that we have a peace pole here in Veterans Park because all of the men and women that go off to serve in the many wars that the United States has been involved in always hope for peace.