The Art Of Love Sandpoint-Area Students Show What Tolerance Looks Like
They all got so tired of hearing it. They’d be on airplanes, thousands of miles away, and mention to their seatmate that they lived in Sandpoint. “Oh, Nazi Land!” the seatmate would exclaim.
The grew weary of outsiders judging Sandpoint as a racist haven, without knowing anything about the town. So they banded together to do something about it.
In mid-September, more than a dozen school, business and community leaders formed the Sandpoint Human Rights Coalition. Its mission: “To support efforts to address human rights in our community, create an atmosphere of acceptance of all people and to communicate Sandpoint as a community that celebrates and accepts diversity.”
The coalition is working on many different ideas to realize their mission, but one idea flew fast. At one meeting, coalition member Kevin Watson said: “Let’s get the children involved.”
They did. More than 140 school children in Bonner County, kindergarten to grade 12, tackled this assignment: Show us, through your artwork, what tolerance looks like.
When Linda Navarre, an arts teacher at Sandpoint Middle School, gave her students the assignment, one student asked: “What does tolerance mean?” Navarre said: “You accept people for who they are. You don’t have to believe what they believe, but you have to accept that they believe it.”
Coalition members were so impressed with the quality of the posters, they decided to create sets of holiday cards using four of the winning entries. Then, more people in the community chipped in to make this good idea become reality. Two Sandpoint artists, Bonnie Shields and Janene Grende, helped select the winners. Keokee Publishing donated production services and Pend Oreille Printers printed the cards at cost.
Other coalition members raced around town to get the card finished in time for the holiday shopping season. They asked businesses if they would sell the cards in packets of 12 for $8 each. No one, so far, has turned them down. The cards are available at many businesses and schools in Bonner County and by calling the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce at (800) 800-2106. Profits from the cards will be used for human rights education and outreach.
People hear so much about what’s wrong with our communities. The Cards for Tolerance project illustrates how people in one community, working together for a common goal, can ignite creativity in young people and produce something that spreads the message of tolerance. It’s a success story to ponder this Thanksgiving weekend.
Nicole Baran, a senior at Sandpoint High School and creator of one of winning posters, said: “I wanted kids (in my poster) because that’s where tolerance should start.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 4 Drawings